Sophisticated Video Analysis of Indian Team at the Hockey World Cup

Poor defense by the midfield is the biggest problem! It is always believed that the strength of the midfield determines the strength of your team, and that along with your defense, is the deciding factor between losing & winning. With many Indian journalists and even unnamed selectors lambasting the defense, sophisticated detailed video analysis was used to verify if this was really the case. We reviewed all the games of the Indian hockey team, limiting ourselves to the role of the midfield & defense. Our initial impression after witnessing the games was the same as of critic- K Arumugam, Narayan Swamy (Times Of India) and the unnamed selector, but detailed & repeated video review painted a different story with different conclusions.

The discrepancy is due to the natural tendency of any observer to concentrate on only the high points of a game, but glossing over what preceded that event. This analysis is a testament to the power & usefulness of video analysis & reinforces the absolute need for Indian hockey to co-opt modern scientific techniques at all levels.

Though, the defensive effort of the whole team, including marking, tackling, making defensive stops, was deficient & weak, what was most glaring was the poor defensive output of the midfield consisting of Sardara, Arjun, Tushar & Vikram.

As a result, the midfield of all their opponents had complete freedom to move the ball relatively easily. This added tremendous pressure to the defence. The central lane was never plugged as rightly pointed out by Cedric Dsouza, (the absolute responsibility of Sardara Singh, the centre-half) so bad are the stats that an individual defender like Mahadik or even a weak one, like Sandeep had more individual defensive stops (many of them in midfield), than the combined total of all the players mentioned above.

The same players were much better in attack, when attack parameters were evaluated including moving the ball, offensive passing & moving into attacking positions. Even in attack & midfield support, one cannot ignore the role of the 2 wing backs Bharat & Gurbaj, who readily moved into the midfield to support the forwards & particularly the tremendous work rate of Mahadik, both in defense & midfield, to get the midfield players, the ball (out of the defensive zone) in open positions. His successful forward pass output into midfield or forward areas is staggering, both for accuracy (>90%) & sheer volume (It is 40-50% more than even (2^nd place) Sardara Singh, a consensus choice for the most brilliant distributor of the ball by all onlookers). In fact his output alone is nearly equal to the rest of the team combined & it is both scary & enthralling to see how much control is exerted by these 2 players. Without their individual or combination play, it would be difficult for India to get the attack going or even get the ball out of their defensive zone.

In any match the defensive stops by the Indian midfield were miniscule, while in comparison there were plenty of stops by their counterparts, the likes of Desmond Abbott, Eddie Ockenden, Rob Hammond. Barry Middleton, or Ashley Jackson. Modern Hockey consists of finding the open man with plenty of space around him, changing point (angle) of attack, protecting the central lane, rapidly moving the ball from defense to attack.

The latter was well executed by the Indian team, where the defenders playing in midfield positions surpassed traditional midfielders, in this role. Here an observation is necessary on the new style of play by the Indian team with the sweeper & the 2 wing backs & also the defenders joining in the attack. This is the style rightly envisaged by Dr. Ric Charlesworth as the style of the future, similar to how Australia plays. We are indeed lucky to have 2 players playing wing backs which is a combo midfield/defensive position & Coach Brasa needs to be commended on having the vision to play wing backs. But, Gurbaj & Bharat have a tendency to forget their defensive roles, what with their offensive roles in domestic Hockey. They were the biggest culprits in marking problems, in addition, Gurbaj made a lot of crucial mistakes in the circle, but was brilliant in open field play.

They also have a tendency in being caught out of position, & easily get beaten on the defensive flanks. In fact, that puts pressure on his backing up sweeper, Mahadik, leading to his being caught in no mans land, on the run with feet exposed, inviting the marauding forward to manufacture a Penalty Corner, or slip past him, as happened on a few occasions. This is one aspect of Mahadik’s game, that begs improvement if he wants to acquire credentials as a dominant player in India’s back field. All these 3 were impressive as allrounders but their defending will need more understanding amongst themselves.

Sardara Singh tended to rove to either side effectively but did not protect the central lane in defence, & was also late coming back. To compound matters Arjun & Vikram not only did not help him in the centre but had terrible defensive games & had plenty of mistraps to boot. One gets the impression that they feel that they are only attacking midfielders. Tushar did come back in time & did the best defensive work of all the midfielders but was weak in play in the circle.

Taking a hard look at statistics developed by Video analysis reveals that “the excellent Indian midfield” as touted by respected writers is in reality: a fallacy. Poor defense of the midfield is really the biggest factor responsible for our result in the World Cup.