Indian junior hockey team coach PR Sreejesh in action during FIH Junior Hockey World Cup. (PHOTO: Hockey India)In Chennai, he took up various spots – atop a building terrace just behind the corner flag and on the second tier of the centenary stands. In Madurai, at a newly set-up international venue, he found a spot right behind the goal on a broadcast tower and shifted later to the side view once rain relented. Over the course of India’s six matches at the FIH Junior World Cup, PR Sreejesh – trading gloves and goalkeeping pads for headsets and writing pads as head coach – found various vantage points beyond the dugout. As he put it after guiding his wards to a bronze medal on Wednesday: “I need my experience, I am collecting it.”After a roller-coaster campaign, it’s easy to forget that just over 15 months ago, Sreejesh was being carried around the turf in Paris after India won back-to-back Olympic bronze medals. He was made the head coach of the junior team almost immediately after he called time on his playing career; there was no break to refresh and recharge, soaking in the glory of a two-decade-long playing career.“It was a learning curve for him, the medal will be a big confidence boost for not just the players, but also for him,” former India captain and Olympian Arjun Halappa told The Indian Express.“From the outside, he will have a lot of criticism when he is a coach, and that is normal. But it’s important to understand that India has frequently looked to foreign coaches in recent years. So it’s a good starting point for Sreejesh, as an Indian legend, to take this decision so quickly after his playing career. I feel it is a huge step taken by Sreejesh on behalf of the Indian hockey fraternity.”The consensus in Chennai was that India were comfortably outplayed by the best junior hockey team in the world, as Germany underlined the gulf between them and the hosts in a thumping 5-1 semifinal result. In fact, for seven out of the eight quarters across the last two matches, Sreejesh saw his wards struggle, playing disjointed hockey. Some of the passing moves gave the impression that Indian players were not on the same page. And Sreejesh alluded to the fact that there isn’t much a coach can do from the sidelines if the players don’t execute the plans in the middle. That feeling of helplessness is perhaps the toughest challenge facing a player transitioning into a coaching role.Halappa pointed out the significance of having a presence like Sreejesh in the coaching system.“Result-wise, all of us would have liked to see India play in the final. Even he might be a little disappointed with the semifinal result. But to go from being a player, straightaway into a coaching role with the junior national team, is a huge responsibility,” he said. “He has done a good job. He is a quick learner. Coaching is a thankless job; you have to be into it almost 24×7.”Story continues below this adIt hasn’t been smooth sailing. Siddharth Pandey, a FIH Level-3 certified coach and Team Director of Hyderabad Toofans in the Hockey India League, pointed out how Sreejesh seemed to prefer the 4-4-2 system instead of the much more prevalent 4-3-3 in modern international hockey.The 4-4-2 has not been in vogue because it leads to an overload for opponents in the middle of the park, where a 4-3-3 with one forward dropping back or one defender stepping up often leads to midfield dominance. That’s why India were outplayed in the middle of the park by Germany.“The 4-4-2 is stepping away from the evolution we have seen in Indian hockey in recent years,” Pandey said. “I was actually not fully convinced by how India played at the Sultan of Johor Cup before the World Cup. And in all honesty, the team was nowhere near ready a year back when Sreejesh took over. So to finish with a bronze is hugely creditable. I would like to have somebody join Sreejesh’s coaching staff with serious coaching credentials at the highest level, perhaps proven in Europe’s top leagues, who can come in with different ideas and challenge him, and push him tactically.”To his credit, Sreejesh didn’t get carried away after the bronze either.Story continues below this ad“It’s only been 12 months for me. Let me learn something first. This one victory doesn’t mean anything. We missed playing in the final. Now that’s the next challenge. If you want to win an Olympic gold medal or the World Cup, you need to win that semifinal. So, it’s really important for me to learn how to prepare for that. I faced that challenge as a player. Now it’s important for me to learn how to control these 18 or 20 brains to prepare for that.”Vinayakk Mohanarangan is Senior Assistant Editor and is based in New Delhi. ... Read More © The Indian Express Pvt Ltd