FIH Men's Pro League

[ssp]

3-0 win today v Argentina. Excellent result. Stats were good, except pass accuracy. The commentator (Simon Mason) was praising our decision making (big surprise, as we are always doing silly things under no pressure), patience and 'game sense'. Stuff that we have habitually been dumb at for decades.

We still take unnecessary risks in defence and our passing just needs to be safer/more accurate and we will be competitive against the top 5-6 teams of the world now. Have to commend Graham Reid and his staff for this. Now, if we could select on merit and get lucky with the umpiring...

[jaydeep]

Yes SSP, a superb all-around performance by our team ... Krishan Pathak was too good in-front of the goal.
Next in May, we are playing away against England.

DOMINANT INDIA CRUSH ARGENTINA TO COMPLETE EXCELLENT WEEKEND IN BUENOS AIRES

Match Stats

[sameerph]

Excellent win. Saw the recording of the match. Argentina started at a fast pace with a lot of attacks in first 10-12 mins with almost no attack from our side. But, we recovered after that and started dominating which continues till the end. Need to improve on pass acuracy.

2 matches each against Great Britain, Spaina and Germany for us in May. That will be a further test of where we stand.

SSP, you mentioned about selection on merit. On watching these 2 matches, do you feel any changes desired in this team ?

[PKBasu]

This is just fabulous. We are getting better, competing hard and winning away-matches against some of the best teams in the world. The best part is that we are creating a narrative of Indian victories against the top teams that will remove the fear factor when we play them at the Olympics. A 3-0 win against the Olympic champions! Almost as sweet as the 6-1 win against Germany in Germany. This is delectable stuff -- although we do manage to draw a few games with the same sides too

[ssp]

SSP, you mentioned about selection on merit. On watching these 2 matches, do you feel any changes desired in this team ?

Mandeep Singh can't be the best option as main striker! He almost messed up the 3rd goal yesterday and generally loses possession. I have to admit, he has improved in the last few matches, but we have not given equal chances to several other forwards (Affan Yousseff, Armaan Qureshi, Sumit Kumar etc). Amit Rohidas has cost us crucial matches with his rash play. I know, Gursahibjit & Chinglensana aren't in this squad, but both sometimes are chosen over better options.

On the positive side, our midfield is now very good with Vivek Prasad looking top class. And we have 2 brilliant players at the back- Harmanpreet & Surender Kumar.

One of the main weaknesses now is poor passing, or making the wrong or risky pass. Both of Argentina's goals yesterday and the disallowed one resulted from our risky passes. The other issue is picking up cards, usually from bad tackles.

[srini]

Good result! Come 'May', we may know what may be achievable Tokyo में

[prasen9]

Stats were good, except pass accuracy.

As you know very well, pass accuracy is a big, big thing in order to control the game. So, this is a serious deficiency. Hope we can work to manage that as we are doing now but also improve on that front.

[arjun2761]

India are 3-0 in the penalty shootouts in the FIH Proleague. I think the penalty shootout favors players with better one-on-one (dribbling) kills, so my hunch is that India should have an advantage in these shootouts. However, I haven't noticed how we have fared in these shootouts in the past to see if my hunch is backed by data beyond the Proleague.

[ssp]

As you know very well, pass accuracy is a big, big thing in order to control the game. So, this is a serious deficiency. Hope we can work to manage that as we are doing now but also improve on that front.

We are improving on this but are not at the level of the best European teams and Australia. Sometimes, it's the choice of pass or poor decision making that causes turnovers. Why play safe when there's the option of passing to teammate who is surrounded by 3 opponents?

And we often have a few players who are adept at mis trapping and getting dispossessed too easily.

We finished our 6 match tour of Argentina with a 1-0 loss and a 4-2 win. The practice matches should be taken too seriously, but it's good to see us stringing quite a few good results since resumption of international hockey. At the Olympics, we will need 2 big wins to get a medal -assuming we get through to the QF

[prasen9]

If it is what you are saying, then a significant component is mental and is coachable starting with video analysis and trying to teach people where they could have made better decisions or others could have made better decisions and drilling that again and again after and before every match with rewards and "punishments" (players getting pulled out of the game for not implementing plans or doing what they were told to do in the match).

[srini]

All hell breaks loose when for the 1st time India start expecting a medal in hockey. All FIH Pro league matches scheduled with India gets postponed while no such hiccups in preparation of the other European teams as their matches go on.This lack of match practice at a critical juncture can take its toll on our medal prospects

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/spo ... 388341.cms

[sameerph]

Yes, this is bad for our team. Indian cricket team's test championship final in England in June is still very much on. So,why our hockey team cannot go espcially if they agree to spend some time before in qurentine. They can also be vaccinated as is being done for shooting team and after that team can stay somewhere there till olympics. Hockey India will have to work out something.

[arjun2761]

Yes, this is definitely bad luck for the Indian team that seems like they are as good as any other team right now (and certainly in the top 3-4).

That said, they have a recent tour against the top teams and hopefully can come up with some wrinkles and surprise the others in the Olympics. This is assuming that our team is able to train in India with full resources. If the training facilities etc. are shut down, then they will be severely disadvantaged.

[ssp]

Mods: could we change the title to 'FIH Men's Pro League'?

Our selectors have (as usual) totally ignored recent and historic performances and selected Jarmanpreet, Jaskaran, Akashdeep, Lalit and Mandeep for the first round of matches in South Africa in February. Gursahibjit (why is this guy even in the core group) and Raj Kumar Pal make it into the stand bys. There are 2 newcomers: Jugraj Singh & Abhisek.

No idea who the newcomers are, but none of the JWC squad get a look in. One or two out of Sanjay, Sudeep Charmako, Uttam Singh, Maninder and Araijeet could have been given a chance, but we keep reverting to failures mentioned above.

[sameerph]

We started with a 5-0 win over France. Really dominating play against France who have looked good in recent times.