Expert eyes see through the flaws

If you couldn8217;t be at the Gachibowli Stadium, the best seat to watch India play Holland today was at the National Stadium. There, 32 of...

If you couldn8217;t be at the Gachibowli Stadium, the best seat to watch India play Holland today was at the National Stadium. There, 32 of hockey8217;s sharpest thinkers studied the match and then discussed threadbare exactly India8217;s performance.

The experts 8212; coaches from various countries attending the FIH8217;s high-performance course here 8212; included Indian stalwarts RS Bhola of the 1964 Olympic gold-winning team, former captains MP Ganesh and Ramandeep Singh, and 1980s star Rekha Bhide. The moderator was FIH global coaching manager, Mohammed Tayyab Ikram, a Pakistani based in Macau.

So how did India fare today? This is the group8217;s 5-point analysis:

8226; NO FIXED STYLE: The Indian tradition is to attack but against the defensive Dutch structure, they tend to become conservative. The Indian team needs to be clear about sticking to their own style. The Dutch were predictably watchful today but Indians withdrew into a shell when they had the opportunity to go all out after leveling the score.

8226; WRONG MAN MARKED: The Indians still don8217;t believe in studying their opponents. In the past two years, they8217;ve frequently played the same Dutch team 8212; and its star striker Tuen de Nooijer. But instead of assigning a defender to mark de Nooijer, the Indians should have neutralised the threat by marking the man who made the passes 8212; Jeroen Delmee, the main playmaker. Almost all the passes to Nooijer in the match were from Delmee8217;s stick.

8226; NOT STUDYING THE FLOW: When converting PCs, the Indians failed to see how the Dutch changed the formation of their defence. For the first, three defenders rushed out from the right and only one from the left. For the second PC, the Dutch noticed a gap on one side and decided to add a charger to the left. However, there was no evidence that the Indians had any inkling about the changes being made by the Dutch.

8226; YOUNG TEAM TOO SLOW: The Indian team has some of the youngest, speediest players in the world. But it was shocking to see that Indian defenders were lazy in going for ball possession and were easily overtaken by the rival forwards 8212; and the reverse was true for Indian forwards. Even from their own defence, the Dutch could send long passes 8212; 30-40 metres 8212; which, after beating Indian defenders, would find a Dutch forward.

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8226; RASH ENDGAME: Biggest charge against India is the lack of killer instinct in final minutes. Today, they showed a tendency to play rough at the death. The last penalty corner the Dutch bagged with two minutes left was awarded because one of the Indian defenders had raised his stick dangerously above the shoulder to fend a scoop8230;The Dutch couldn8217;t convert but the ignorance of basic rules and technique was clear.