Asian Champions Trophy: India’s defence-oriented technique faces check in opposition to aggressive Malaysia

Since the Four Nations Tournament in Barcelona late July and until their recreation in opposition to Japan on Friday evening within the Asian Champions Trophy, India have scored 13 objectives in six matches and conceded eight. Having come on board as head coach solely in April, these are nonetheless early days for Craig Fulton, who’s trying to change India’s fashion of play with extra emphasis on defending than they’re used to. To learn an excessive amount of into these numbers within the honeymoon interval can be stretching it too far, however these video games are additionally shelling some mild into the gradual progress that the crew is making.

For a crew that’s historically used to taking part in attacking recreation, Fulton’s techniques are the precise reverse. In soccer phrases, it may solely be in comparison with Ajax Amsterdam, the pioneers of Total Football bringing in Jose Mourinho. Having caught to their attacking recreation underneath Graham Reid, who made the crew press loads tougher than they often do, which resulted in them typically getting caught within the counter assaults, Fulton has been constructing the aspect from the again.

On Sunday, India are lined as much as face Malaysia, a crew that has introduced their attacking recreation to the fore and is inflicting all types of issues to opponents. The fixture will undoubtedly be probably the most difficult for India because the Malaysian aspect look so slick on the sector with their actions, which is certain to check the Indian defence.

Players of the Indian (white) and Japanese males’s hockey crew in motion throughout an Asian Champions Trophy 2023 match at Mayor Radhakrishnan Hockey Stadium, in Chennai, Friday, Aug. 4, 2023. (PTI Photo)

Irrespective of how far the ahead line has penetrated into the opposition’s half, it’s laborious to see the backline step out of their field, preferring to be in proper positions always. Yet, six weeks from the Hangzhou Asian Games India are displaying the kind of complications that they wish to deal with on the earliest quite than go away it too late.

Out of the 13 objectives they’ve scored, just one aim has come by way of subject aim. The relaxation have been by means of penalty corners, the place their conversion fee was abysmal to say the least in opposition to Japan on Friday. Out of 14 penalty corners, they transformed just one as India’s drag-flickers – Jugraj Singh, Varun Kumar and captain Harmanpreet Singh – have been fended off by Japan’s tight defence. Although that they had scored six of their seven in opposition to China by way of penalty corners on Thursday, it was laborious to overlook how India lacked the ending touches within the circle.

Although the midfielders overcame tight gaps and launched a wave of assaults that penetrated Japan midfielders, the ahead line struggled to transform them. “We started the game really well, we just couldn’t find the connections in front of the goal in the first 15-20 minutes… It’s every coach’s concern if you are not converting your chances, whether PCs or field goals (but) nothing changes, it’s a tournament, one game at a time,” Fulton stated.

With the rating tied 1-1, and Japan’s defence displaying no indicators of cracking, India did all they might to win a penalty nook, which resulted in some collective sighs going throughout the bottom. “It depends on the player what he decides to do and we back them in doing that. They have the license to shoot whenever they want to but if a player is winning a penalty corner, it is their choice,” Fulton stated.

Players of the Indian (white) and Japanese males’s hockey crew in motion throughout an Asian Champions Trophy 2023 hockey match at Mayor Radhakrishnan Hockey Stadium, in Chennai, Friday, Aug. 4, 2023. (PTI Photo)

Mid-fielder Nilakanta Sharma revealed that the crew used the Four Nations match in Barcelona to get used to Fulton’s techniques, which they’re but to totally adapt to. “We had a good tournament in Spain. The European teams had prepared well and so did we. The upcoming Asian Games is a very important tournament for us. But our focus now is to approach this tournament game by game. Under Reid it was all about playing attacking hockey. But under Fulton, he believes in defending to win. Under Reid we used to play full press hockey but Fulton feels that if we press full then countering may be a problem for us,” Nilakanta stated.

Nilakanta admitted that the change of techniques did trigger a couple of points, however with each passing recreation they’re getting higher. “So in Spain we were a bit confused. But as we played, we learnt and now every player has understood the style of play. So every player now has a dual role. I play as an attacking midfielder and I also switch to a defensive midfielder as and when needed and I can replace an attacking midfielder or a defensive midfielder as per the situation,” he stated.

Coach Fulton says that the crew is ‘one phase away from doing what we want to do’. “We want our players to shoot, that’s our number one objective and the players have the licence to do so. They then make the next best decision based on instinct and we back that.”