CHANGE IN STYLE, MORE SUBSTANCE

After early discomfort due to change in style of play, Harmanpreet & Co have learnt to adapt to coach Fulton's ideas

- SWAROOP SWAMINATHAN

DURING Craig Fulton's first full press conference as coach of the men's hockey side, he raised eyebrows when he effectively suggested he was going to recalibrate India's stylistic DNA. Traditionally, the country had been brought up on receiving the ball and going up the other end in search of goals as quickly as possible. They didn't tend to do much of ball retention. It was always a gung-ho brand of hockey, something that had reached its modern peak at the Tokyo Games when Graham Reid, the coach Fulton replaced, led the side to a bronze.

In essence, that bronze-medal winning game of 4-3 against Germany summed up Indian hockey. Vibes and not much else. When it clicked, it was hockey on steroids. When it didn't, it was a bit daft; amateur hour. In short, they managed to thrive in their own chaos.

It's this chaos that Fulton wanted to stop. Be more commanding as well as more boring across 60 minutes. Be more like Belgium, in a way. "I think philosophy-wise, I would like to defend to win," Fulton had said in May. "I would like to have our defensive structures in place because that's the first step of attacking. If we try to play a counter-attacking style, it doesn't help if you can't defend, so you would never win the ball back to counterattack. At the same time what happens if you are 2-0 down? You can't sit in your own half and you have to make the game then. You're going to have to high press, you're going to have to put the opposition under pressure. We're going to need to do both. I'm a very forward, attacking coach. I like to score goals, but I also like to do a very solid defensive play."