Junior Indian hockey team – traditional problems remain

Traditional problems remain in the junior Indian side.

In my previous article, I had said that all seems lost with the senior India hockey team. I also mentioned that we need to concentrate on the junior team.

With the current coaching team of Gregg Clark and Baljit Saini, we have the makings of a very good coaching staff in place. We have an experienced international coach, combined with a sensible, disciplinarian, pragmatic Indian coach. So without a doubt, a crack team is already in place. The fact that they worked together on the winning Ranchi Rhinos outfit adds even more weight to their credentials.

To that mix, you add high-performance director Oltmans and you have a truly genuine shot at a good result. In addition, the attack and experience part of the equation in the team is already in place. With a sprinkling of the junior team members already playing on the senior national team, the junior India team should start off with a distinct advantage. But there lies the rub.

The problem of the junior team is the same as the seniors – the play of the back six is going to make or break India.

It is critical how the back six are going to marshal the Indian team. Already in place is a goalkeeper who was awarded the best goalkeeper award (amongst all his world peers) in the tournament concluded last year in Malaysia. With the inclusion of players that played in the WSH – the likes of Raminder Singh, Lalit and others – and the current Olympians Akashdeep, Mandeep, there is plenty of potency on the attack side of the equation.

All they need is training in set plays, set formations, and particularly, patience during goal scoring attempts. It is but natural that with such a magnitude of experienced talent, the coaches will come up with the right offensive answers. What is worrisome is the back 6. The style of play of the midfielders playing on the senior India team is representative of what is culturally done on the hockey fields of India. The junior team will have the same issues.

The junior team also has an “a la Sandeep Singh” issue.

Traditionally on the fields of India, the PC experts are generally defenders – strong, big but very slow. Their deficiencies are not corrected because at the school level, they are, because of their tremendous PC expertise, nearly prima donnas. What coach has the guts to sit down his match-winning weapon and berate him about his lack of defensive skills?

In Gurjinder Singh (best player of the WSH tournament) we have a similar player – lethal on his day in PCs, but a slow and poor tackler. As mentioned in basketball, he really is a “project”, to be handled with kid gloves. The coaches are going to have a very difficult decision to make as to which position they play him in. This is going to affect the future of Indian hockey (just like with Sandeep).

A defensive role for this youngster would be potentially disastrous, both for India and for his career. Modern hockey requires mobile, good tackling defenders, with good trapping and good distribution. But quickness and mobility are the keys. He will always lack these attributes, unless “the project”is handled extremely well by his mentor coaches. A stint with a personal coach and a personal trainer would be in his best interest. Otherwise I fear we will have a repetition of the Sandeep saga.

Towards that aim as a future philosophy, it might behoove India to develop the PC battery expertise in the hands of non-defenders. Pau Quemada (Spain) and Ashley Jackson (England) – both great PC experts, both midfielders – come readily to our mind. A memo to all our school coaches with a hint of this would be really beneficial. But that is for the future.

Midfield has an attack mindset.

With many of these players playing alongside Sardar Singh on the senior India team, and with their brief of playing attacking hockey as instructed by their senior coach, it is but natural that they will continue that role. Defensive discipline will have to be enforced.

Here, Baljit Singh Saini will have to use all the powers at his disposal to keep his midfield in line. He will have to handle the Olympians in the mix very well to make sure they are “grounded” and play like ordinary teammates. It is going to be a challenge to omit some attack minded midfield players for defensive ones. Playing some fast defenders as midfielders could also be a trial option. Here too, Kothajit Singh could be a revelation, with his silky smooth moves, his tackling prowess, and the speed with the ball on his stick. Serious consideration should be given to him to be involved in the defensive scheme of things.

Indian players during a practice session supervised by head coach Michael Nobbs.

Kayla Sharland from New Zealand, who is a very good midfielder, comes to mind because of her excellent work in defense whenever she’s called on to help out. Kothajit’s communication with his teammates, unfortunately, will need a lot of work. But his tackling skills are good, which should make transitioning to defensive midfield relatively easy.

Manpreet Singh is too attack-minded to be saddled with defensive responsibilities. Although, with his old Ranchi Rhinos coach having a good rapport with him, a reminder of the much-needed defensive responsibility should be possible.

Here, it must be mentioned that coach Gregg Clark has a lot riding on his shoulders, since he would be mentoring these youngsters, giving them a unique style, and would shape their philosophy for the future. We trust that he would bring the European style of play to his midfield. His task may be helped by the traditional midfield strength and toughness that most teams from Punjab bring with them. But he has to sincerely curb their tendency to be rough and to mouth off.

Also, he will have to do something about their “jittery stomachs on big occasions” tendencies. It seems that the current lot of favoured midfielders, minus Devendra Walmiki, seem to be coming from that area. Walmiki, with his German experience and exposure, should bring a sense of calmness to the midfield. His stint with the Mumbai team in the WSH, where he contributed well to the team in a defensive midfield role, should stand him and his coach in good stead. A similar role from his compatriots playing alongside him should also benefit the midfield and help coach Clark.

What was began in the Brasa era –“wingback play”, should be developed by India since they have the speed and the dribbling skills to initiate an attack from deep down in their defensive zone. Maybe a Spain type of defensive philosophy of having all 11 players behind the ball could be experimented with.

Since an all-out attacking midfield is what is traditional, a mobile defensive structure in those situations is going to be critical. Most European teams, after scouting the Indian attacking prowess, will strategise towards counterattack, winning PCs and effectively, and with the resultant goals, put further pressure on the Indian midfield to attack even more.

A mantra of limiting the PCs conceded and reducing the number of circle penetrations should be paramount in the minds of our midfielders, even if it is to the detriment of their natural attacking tendency.

Development of inter-midfield buildup play should be encouraged.

Again, this goes against the grain of Indian hockey culture. Lots of practice and effort on the training ground would have to be expended on this aspect. Passing with accuracy and minimizing missed passes would have to be worked on.

For Indians, soccer-style interchanging roles of midfielders and forwards, depending on ball movement and the ball carrier, is new; that is why, these concepts would have to be introduced and perfected. This would add tremendous potency to the attack side of things. Also, in the defensive scheme of things, this would be extremely useful.

All-rounders’ ability to play multiple positions.

This is the need of the hour and should not be difficult to achieve. The only stumbling block is the selection process, which is weighted towards the selectors and not as much towards the coach. The likelihood of the coach’s opinion being vetoed is strong. Finally, a true selection needs to done without regional bias or “favourites” and there should be no hesitation in sitting down established stars for non-performance.

Back 4 – traditional weakness and its correction.

With a solid goalkeeper behind them, mentally the defenders in front should be more relaxed. Serious consideration could be given to playing a 3 defender-cum-sweeper system. But again, the key would be the understanding and intelligence of the players to play in a new system.

This would be the most difficult task for coach Gregg Clark. Multiple coaches before him have not been able to solve this puzzle. Here, the experience and stint of director Oltmans with Pakistan should help bring about ideas to go about and achieve this. It must be said that the Pakistanis have improved tremendously in this aspect.

Finally, as was evident during the time of coach Brasa, a premium on passing did give that Indian team a sense of modernity. Even if this aspect is taken up on a war footing by this group of talented youngsters, their battle will be half done. We can only hope for the future.

The current young Indian team line up has all the traditional faults of Indian teams before them. The only positive thing about this team are the coaches. There is still a lot of work that needs to be done on the defensive end of the field.