PR Sreejesh has claimed that the Indian men’s hockey team will need to start scoring more field goals if they want to keep winning Olympic medals. India secured their second consecutive Olympic medal in Paris when they won the bronze by beating Spain, but the tournament did see the Indian forwards struggle for goals. India scored just 3 field goals during the campaign with most of the burden falling on captain and main dragflicker Harmanpreet Singh.

India scored 15 goals, of which 9 were from penalty corners and 3 were penalty strokes. Sreejesh, who retired after the tournament, told PTI that the forwards look for a PC the moment they enter circle rather than a field goal. The retiring goalkeeper said that if India wants to go to the next level, they need to look for more field goals.

“Most the times, when the forwards are getting into the circle the first thing that comes into their mind is to go for a penalty corner because that’s what we are good at. I am not saying that our forwards are not trying to score field goals.”

“When you have better options to score from penalty corners, why should we waste our opportunities? But if we are thinking about the next level for the Indian hockey team, if we wanted to win Olympic medals, we need to score more field goals as well because defence has got some limitations,” he said.

“I shouldn’t say this but we are not Germany who can defend one goal for 60 minutes because they are disciplined, they are cultured. The style and strategy is different than us.”

“I strongly believe that we made some mistakes and conceded a few goals but we need to sharpen our forwards to score more goals so that the defence gets more comfort,” saud Sreejesh.

Not easy to be in that legends league

Sreejesh has got his name alongside the likes of Major Dhyan Chand, Dilip Tirkey as one of the greates Indian players in hockey. However, Sreejesh feels that being associated with legends like them isn’t an easy task.

“It is not easy to be in that league. When you are getting into that senior role, when you are getting into limelight, it gets higher because your responsibility then is not only to perform for your country,” said Sreejesh.

Sreejesh is all set to become the new head coach for the Jr.men’s team after his retirement.

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