Monday, December 16, 2013

Where Indian junior team head coach Gregg Clark could have gone wrong tactically?


Indian junior men’s hockey team head coach Gregg Clark is highly rated in world hockey circles. No wonder when the South African was named the coach of the national junior team in April this year, hockey lovers saw the move as a step in the right direction.

And Clark seemed to have hit it off with the boys – the Indian Colts won the 3rd Sultan of Johor Cup in Malaysia and also dished a spirited showing as part of the senior team in the 3rd Asian Champions Trophy in Japan, where they beat the Malaysian senior team 4-3 and even threw a big fight to the Pakistan senior team going down 4-5.

Of course, Clark’s credentials were first catapulted into the public imagination when he shepherded Ranchi Rhinos to glory in the inaugural Hero Hockey World League. The manner in which he handled the Rhinos impressed the high and mighty of Hockey India and he was soon offered the coach job of the junior team.

India’s preparations for the Junior Men’s World Cup sounded good under Clark. But what really went wrong with the national team at the big-ticket event, which saw us finishing 10th – a notch below our 9th place finish in the 2009 World Cup.

Hockey Passion
analyses where Clark could have tactically gone wrong:

Swapping of goalkeepers: Clark started with Harjot Singh in the opening tie against the Netherlands and the Chandigarh lad lived up to the faith reposed in him, nullifying the Dutch raids with aplomb. Even though the Orange brigade struck thrice against us, Harjot had a superb game and again looked good against Canada in the next game. The South African inexplicably replaced Harjot with Sushant Tirkey for the must-win tie against Korea and India paid a big price for it. Gurjinder gave India winning hopes but two quick late second half goals conceded by Sushant put a dampener on India’s quarterfinal qualifying chances. Surely, Clark messed it up replacing Harjot for Sushant.

Lack of adequate playing time for Gurjinder Singh: One is not sure if Clark has confidence in Gurjinder Singh’s defending skills, or how on earth can anyone explain the talented drag-flicker being not in the starting eleven. The coach tested the patience of the hockey fans when he did not bring him in for the first quarter in the key clash against Korea. As it panned out, Gurjinder comes to the pitch late in the first half and scores two quick PC goals to enable India not just equalize but go ahead at half-time – it’s a different matter altogether that our defence leaked two late goals to have us out of the quarterfinal stage. The drag-flicker has shown his value to the side, scoring in each game and hasn’t quite got adequate playing time he deserves.

Fielding Ramanadeep and Mandeep together: Clark also made a tactical slip-up of not playing the likes of Ramandeep Singh and Mandeep Singh together in the key league games for longer periods, which did affect out forwardline. They are our two key strikers and both should have been allowed to settle down rather than being hastily brought in and then taken off. The result was both never looked settled in the league phase. Key players need to be fielded in the starting eleven and given long hauls to perform, something which was not happening in the league phase at least, although Ramandeep was in prime form against Argentina in the classification game.

Non selection of Affan Yousuf: Affan Yousuf’s non-inclusion in the side was a big surprise. The 19-year-old, was the vice-captain of the victorious Indian team in the 3rd Sultan of Johor Cup, but was named as s standby in the 3rd Asian Champions Trophy and the Junior World Cup. Affan would have been a better bet than Talwinder Singh, who hardly did anything of note in the World Cup. It’s fair to assume that Clarke’s decision not to pick Affan was a serious tactical blunder as it would have given our forwardline more teeth.

Didn’t do enough to fix the defence woes: Coaches can only guide but cannot play for you on the pitch. Even then Clark did not seem to take corrective steps to plug our defensive holes. He kept persisting with Amit Rohidas, who despite his vice captain status, had a poor World Cup. His trapping left a lot to be desired and save for a lone PC goal in one of the classification games, the Odisha lad was a big disappointment. Clark ought to have shuffled his backline in order to bring about improvement. Even Sukhamjit Singh had a sedate World Cup leaving Gurjinder doing all he can to help India stay competitive in defence.

How poor managers can cause serious reputational damage to a brand!

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