Champions trophy hockey 2012

[arjun2761]

I suspect our selectors are not very professional. Likely, they are influenced by regional considerations and politics in whom they select besides pure hockey ability (or talent for the younger ones).

A better model for us would be for the "selectors" to really be scouts who select the top 60-80 players and have professional coaches (i.e., Nobbs and his staff) form the national squads out of that list rather than the selectors. The coaches are probably better able to evaluate the ability of the players to play modern hockey and also team chemistry issues and at least there is some motivation for them to do the right thing as they are more directly impacted by a poor showing of the team.

[ssp]

I'm not convinced about Nobbs. I still see some of the pathetic traits that have dogged our teams for decades. Trapping and passing breaks down all over the pitch. We gift away too many PCs due to lack of composure and we still have too many weak players. We can't keep a consistent performance going for 6 matches in a top level tournament like this CT.

Overall we had 1 really good match against NZ, and decent 2nd half against England. We were OK against Germany, but still contrived to lose that match and stats showed Germany were better at circle penetrations and PCs (mainly because our forwards and defenders made idiotic decisions at both ends of the pitch). The other 3 matches were not good. Giving the ball away, slack marking and just whacking the ball into the D from the wings does not smack of smart coaching.

So, Nobbs has not worked on the following:
1. Gaining PCs. So many times our forwards would take a strike from a really acute angle, when finding a foot inside the D would have been the better option
2. Too many turn overs because of slack passes. Ball speed (apart from Sardar) on passes is too low
3. Our formation is too rigid and easy to play against.
4. We didn't press too well in most matches- although it was a big improvement over previous efforts
5. Playing the likes of Dharamvir & others who continually lose the ball for most of the matches
6. Man marking is still not great- although much better than at the Olympics

Ultimately, we have to admit our squad is not strong enough to trouble the better teams. I had hopes we would beat Pakistan as they are on a similar level of 'dumbness' as us. We have about 18 months till the next WC, and I would like to see 2-3 new faces at each tournament (we play in)to try and unearth another 2-3 quality players.

So far, we have: 2 xGKs (generally our best players because they get plenty of practice!), Sardar, Rupinder, Ragunath (until a better option is found), Manpreet, Kothajit, Birendra to be the mainstays of our team. I could add Chandi & Sunil (who seemed to have a poor game against Pakistan). The others don't seem strong enough or bring anything 'extra' (like speed or stick skills or tackling) to raise our level of performance. The 3 juniors seem too lightweight and probably hadn't come up against such skilled & disciplined defenders.

Unfortunately the same squad has been retained for the Asian CT that starts on the 20th of December. We have to be thankful Sandeep & Tushar have not returned, but Shivendra is on the stand by list! 2 others who seemed to have dropped out of favour are Sarvanjit & Gurbaj. I suspect they have been sidelined because of off the field discipline and bad attitude to training.

[ssp]

Arjun, good point regarding our selectors.

Regarding selections, I think we need to look at players who are physically strong to maintain possession when being hassled on or even pushed by the opposition ( as the umpiring is not going to be fair).

I feel our selectors always go for someone like Danish or Akashdeep who seem to have good stick skills in an 'Indian' environment, where the defenders are not as savvy as the Europeans or Aussies, but are too lightweight in the key matches. They also got called for fouls by umpires for 'shielding' the ball (unfairly in my opinion) with their sticks- which probably goes unpunished in India.

I don't think their is an easy answer to this problem, but I would favour sending 10-15 of our most promising youngsters to play in the professional European leagues for 1-2 seasons.

[Ranjit]

I'm not convinced about Nobbs. I still see some of the pathetic traits that have dogged our teams for decades. Trapping and passing breaks down all over the pitch. We gift away too many PCs due to lack of composure and we still have too many weak players. We can't keep a consistent performance going for 6 matches in a top level tournament like this CT.

Overall we had 1 really good match against NZ, and decent 2nd half against England. We were OK against Germany, but still contrived to lose that match and stats showed Germany were better at circle penetrations and PCs (mainly because our forwards and defenders made idiotic decisions at both ends of the pitch). The other 3 matches were not good. Giving the ball away, slack marking and just whacking the ball into the D from the wings does not smack of smart coaching.

So, Nobbs has not worked on the following:
1. Gaining PCs. So many times our forwards would take a strike from a really acute angle, when finding a foot inside the D would have been the better option
2. Too many turn overs because of slack passes. Ball speed (apart from Sardar) on passes is too low
3. Our formation is too rigid and easy to play against.
4. We didn't press too well in most matches- although it was a big improvement over previous efforts
5. Playing the likes of Dharamvir & others who continually lose the ball for most of the matches
6. Man marking is still not great- although much better than at the Olympics

Ultimately, we have to admit our squad is not strong enough to trouble the better teams. I had hopes we would beat Pakistan as they are on a similar level of 'dumbness' as us. We have about 18 months till the next WC, and I would like to see 2-3 new faces at each tournament (we play in)to try and unearth another 2-3 quality players.

So far, we have: 2 xGKs (generally our best players because they get plenty of practice!), Sardar, Rupinder, Ragunath (until a better option is found), Manpreet, Kothajit, Birendra to be the mainstays of our team. I could add Chandi & Sunil (who seemed to have a poor game against Pakistan). The others don't seem strong enough or bring anything 'extra' (like speed or stick skills or tackling) to raise our level of performance. The 3 juniors seem too lightweight and probably hadn't come up against such skilled & disciplined defenders.

Unfortunately the same squad has been retained for the Asian CT that starts on the 20th of December. We have to be thankful Sandeep & Tushar have not returned, but Shivendra is on the stand by list! 2 others who seemed to have dropped out of favour are Sarvanjit & Gurbaj. I suspect they have been sidelined because of off the field discipline and bad attitude to training.

SSP - I think we have to give Nobbs time.

He has only been in the job 18 months.
Ask any top coach (hendriks, Charlesworth etc) to coach a side and they'll insist on a minimum 4 year contract.

The feedback from a number of the coaches at the Champions Trophy was that India are headed in the right direction and that Hockey India were right to have retained Nobbs after the Olympics.
It would have been the easy option to sack him - but that would effectively mean India would have to start from scratch again with a new coach.

I think the World Cup in 2014 and teh the Asian games will be amore realistic gauge of what Nobbs has contributed and whether he should continue to Rio.
I think his goals should be a top six finish at the World cup and the Gold medal at the Asian Games - if the side continues to show improvement I don't think those goals are unattainable.

[Sandeep]

Disappointing to see us lose the bronze medal match but I think it has been a good major tournament for India in a long time. There are more positives than negatives from this tournament.

[Ankit Desai]

Thank you Ranjit and Sandeep.

-Ankit