Eradicating the Brasa techniques will be a challenge for Nobbs

BANGALORE: Michael Nobbs faces the unique problem of eradicating the ‘Europeanness’ among Indians, a quality that the hockey team imbibed well during Jose Brasa’s tenure.

The pass back is the chief ploy of them all, pretty much the antithesis to presses that the Australians employ.

“The Indians are more European than Indian at this stage. It’s going to be hard because European teams defend from behind, do a thorough man-to-man marking. We still have players playing the Brasa way. That is not wrong but when some others play the Indian and Australian style which is different the two systems do not jell. It will take time. It has been only three weeks and three weeks do not make a whole summer,” Nobbs said after the third practice match against Army XI which the Indian team won 4-2.

India had won the previous two matches too played over the weekend.

The Australian said one of the challenges would be assist the Indians get their instinctive nature back.

“I want the instinct back. Some of the players are beautiful to watch. Their attack pattern too has improved. The team is starting to shape quite nicely. But they fall down a little bit in the defensive area.”

Nobbs said the only way they can be dissuaded to passback at the slightest pretext is via practice.

“We need more practice games. This is just the third game that we have played as a team. In Australia it takes about three-quarters of a season with a brand new team to get together. Which means we are looking at 18-20 matches before things start jelling. The China series coming up will tell us what we are doing and what we really need to do.”

About the team…

The team is not fresh. They are playing under fatigue conditions, doing fitness exercises in the morning and playing a game in the evening. That is what we want to do so they we can get rid of some silly errors. The press too is coming along nicely.

The MEG turf…

Entirely different from the SAI turf. Slower, heavy and just what I wanted. Ideal for preparations prior to a tournament which is to play on a pitch which you are going to play a tournament on.