Need to be consistent in all quarters to claim podium finish at Tokyo Olympics, attests Graham Reid

Indian men's hockey team coach Graham Reid has called for consistency across matches and in all quarters if Team India wants to stake a claim for a podium finish at the Tokyo Olympics. The men in blue’s performance in the recently-concluded FIH Pro League matches against the Netherlands, world champions Belgium and Australia were sensational which also helped them garner 10 points after six matches.

The former minced no words in expressing that this camp will be a good foundation ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games with focus on areas the team lacked in their campaign so far in the FIH Hockey Pro League where they won 2 matches against the Netherlands and lost one match and won a match each against Belgium and Australia respectively.

"One of the takeaways from the FIH Hockey Pro League was that we have proven that we can produce good results against the best in the world. It's a step forward in building self-belief. Also, it shows that the things we have been focusing on is working. But we still need to be more consistent not only across matches but also across all quarters," expressed Reid as quoted by Times of India.

The Hockey India also named a 32-member core probable group for the Men's National Coaching Camp which begins at the Sports Authority of India, Bengaluru on March 2, 2020. The players will report to Chief Coach for the four-week National Coaching Camp ahead of the team's tour to Germany and England for the FIH Hockey Pro League. Reid has laid down the plan for the players to focus on the skills of tackling, goal shooting and trapping. India’s staged a remarkably comeback via attacking play in the second half against Australia, the former wants the players to exactly replicate that in practice.

"The four-week camp will bring focus back on our skill – tackling, goal shooting, trapping. We also need to work on our attacking abilities, especially to move the ball from attacking 25 into the circle. After this camp, we will go to Germany and England to play which we help us further assess improvements required as we work towards 2020 Olympic Games," stated Reid.