India men's Hockey team captain Harmanpreet Singh reflected on India's performance in the recently concluded European round of the FIH Pro League where they experienced a mixed bag of results.
The Indian skipper suggested that the team needs to improve defensively also convert the array chances they have been creating around the 'D'.
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Speaking on India's performance, the captain said,
There were a number of takeaways from the matches in Europe. We conceded goals from the touchline and that needs to be fixed. There is also work to be done on converting the chances we create in the ‘D’.
While playing top European teams is always a good learning experience, we will now focus on bringing our best game to the fore against top Asian sides in the Asian Champions Trophy and Asian Games.
Overall, I think it was a good outing. Playing away games against top sides is always challenging and I think we lived up to the billing.
How did India's perform in FIH Pro League?
India played eight matches in the UK and Netherlands where they won four and lost four. They won and lost one game each against Belgium and Great Britain, won twice against Argentina and lost both the ties against the Netherlands.
India finished the campaign at the top of the table with 30 points from 16 matches.
On playing under the tutelage of newly appointed Australian tactician Graham Reid, Singh opined,
Craig brings a lot of positivity into the team and he is very clear in his thoughts and expectations on how we must play as a team.
In these matches (in Europe), the focus was more on executing a disciplined structure in our game, with emphasis on defending well.
What next for the Indian men's Hockey team?
The Indian players are currently on a break but they will soon regroup to train for the upcoming Asian Champions Trophy (ACT) which will be held in Chennai from August 3 to 12.
After that, they will prepare for the Asian Games 2023 which will take place September-October in Hangzhou, China.
