FIH Series Finals | Indian team is really comfortable with Graham Reid, says Manpreet Singh
Ahead of the FIH Series Finals in Bhubaneswar, Indian men’s hockey captain Manpreet Singh has said that the players are really comfortable with Graham Reid as the head coach of the team. Manpreet also stressed on the importance of the tournament with regard to the Tokyo Olympic qualifications.
The Indian men’s hockey team is all set to start its campaign against Russia at the upcoming FIH Series Finals in Bhubaneswar on June 6 and the Indian captain is all pumped up. Ahead of the tournament, the skippers of all the eight teams were present for an interaction with the reporters at the Kalinga Stadium on Tuesday. Manpreet is of the opinion that all the coaches have different styles and the team members are comfortable with Graham Reid who was appointed as the head coach in April. The FIH Series Finals will be the first major event for India since Reid’s appointment.
“The new coach is very friendly. He always wears a smile on his face. He is comfortable with the players and the players are comfortable with him as well. He mixes with all players and talks with the players openly. He believes that all the players are important on the ground. If a player doesn’t do well, he believes in motivating the player and bring him back on track,” Manpreet explained.
“All coaches have different styles. Harendra Sir had a different technique. The game reading and the plans are different for different coaches. We are really comfortable with the new coach. There is a good understanding between the players and the coaches.”
India is in Group A of the eight-team event and they will meet Russia in their first game of the group encounter on Thursday. India will then face Poland and Uzbekistan. Manpreet said that the tournament is important for all the participating teams and India can’t take a side lightly in the competition.
“We are really excited about this competition. As everyone knows this competition is really important for all the teams here. All the teams want to qualify for the Olympics. Same for us as well, we want to do well in this competition. The crowd is really supportive here in Bhubaneswar and not for the Indian team alone but for others as well. It is always amazing when we play in Odisha. From here we will go for the final round of the Olympics. We will do our best and definitely go into the finals,” said the Indian skipper.
Speaking about India’s performance in the Asian Games last year as they had suffered a defeat against Malaysia and failed to make it to the finals, Manpreet said that was unfortunate but the team will want to leave the history behind them.
“We were unfortunate to lose the semi-finals of the Asian Games and that is history which can’t be changed now. We shouldn’t underestimate any of the teams in the tournament. One good day on the ground and you never know. Any team can come into the semi-finals and that is a knockout game. We have to win that and need to be prepared to face any of the teams,” the midfielder said.
“If we had won the Asian Games we wouldn’t have been playing here. We lost the semi-finals, we didn’t do well there and here we are getting a second coach.”
Apart from Reid, the Indian team also have the services of analytical coach Chris Ciriello alongside Piyush Dubey and former India striker Shivendra Singh in the support staff. Manpreet also spoke about their importance in the side and about the improvement the team is looking forward from the strikers as far as finishing inside the D is concerned.
“Chris Ciriello has done well with the team along with Graham Reid. Different session for the strikers with Shivendra Singh has also helped. In the Australia tour we struggled in finishing, so we are working on that to rectify in this tournament. We are trying to score goals with the chances that we get in this tournament and earn more PCs,” the skipper signed off.
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