Pakistan can learn from Indian hockey’s revival: New Pakistan coach Siegfried Aikman | Hockey News – Times of India

NEW DELHI: Pakistan has renewed its efforts to revive its once celebrated sport of hockey by appointing Netherland’s Siegfried Aikman as the new head coach of their senior men’s team.
Aikman, who took Japan to the 2018 Asian Games gold, was officially announced as the new coach by the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) before the team flew to Dhaka for the ongoing men’s Asian Champions Trophy.
Aikman spoke to TimesofIndia.com after the team’s arrival in Bangladesh over the last weekend.
Your first thoughts on joining Pakistan hockey as the new head coach…
It’s a new experience to be with another team, after (being) a long time with Japan. On the other hand, it’s refreshing as well to work with another group. I think that it’s actually a good thing to happen. The Pakistani players are very eager and they really want to improve and want to change. What I have seen gives me a very positive feeling.

Your official tenure as coach with the Pakistan team starts after the Asian Champions Trophy (ACT)?
My contract is already on, so I am already with them. At the moment, I had told (Khawaja) Junaid (former Olympian and head coach of senior Pakistan team before Aikman’s appointment) to prepare the team for this tournament as I have just joined. So I said we will discuss among ourselves how we will do it. I will not fully take over (right away) because I think that will not be logical. He should prepare the team and do the job. But I will support wherever I can. He needs to make his choice. If he wants me to do the coaching, I will do it. If he wants to coach (during the ACT), I’m also fine with it. I will be connected. It’s just like I did with the under-21 team in Bhubaneswar (during the Junior World Cup). I was there too.
What did you make of the Pakistan talent you saw at the Junior World Cup?
The reality is that Pakistan declined a lot, or the reality is we didn’t play matches for almost three years. That never helps to grow. If you want to perform as an international team, you need 35 to 40 matches in a year. They (senior team) lacked that experience because it’s just not there. They didn’t qualify for the (last two) Olympic Games. Their last match was the Olympic qualifier, I think. After that, it was very quiet.
For a team with a legacy like the one Pakistan has and the decline that they are going through, what is the mandate you have been given by the PHF?
Firstly, I wanted them to have a reality check. That means living in the past doesn’t help. So we need to accept that we declined. We are number 18 in the world, which means that other teams are doing better than us. So we cannot again get to the situation where (we think that) we are fantastic hockey players (even) if we don’t improve. The time that we could live in the past is over. We should acknowledge the position we are in.
Of course, we have players. They call them skillful (but) I have another opinion. I said that in my opinion they have a lot of potential. But skillful? I don’t know. I think they are very good dodgers, but dodging is a little part of the hockey game. If I look at the technical skills, like passing and receiving, I see too many unforced errors.
They hardly control the ball well on the first touch, and they cannot play the ball in one touch most of the time because of that. So if you look at the demands of modern hockey and high-performance hockey, you see that they are lacking. That part I want to bring back. So I want to modernize the way we play.

For a long time the reason for the drop in performances has been sighted as the transition from natural to artificial grass…
You cannot blame the (transition from natural grass to) turf. What you should blame, and that’s what I also said, is that we need a coaching structure. We need to modernize the coaches in Pakistan. I think India started with this…We need to improve this at the grassroot level, we need to bring in new skills…need to bring awareness about tactical play. What is it? What are the modern structures they play?
(Players in Pakistan) are still coached by coaches who are from (the time) before the offside rule was abolished. So basically you see that they also play as if there is still an offside rule, even if they are born after 1996.
Did you notice that in particular in the academies that you might have visited in Pakistan so far?
No. I have been in Pakistan for only three days. But I looked at the Pakistan juniors and the senior team. Then I see that they play mainly with the attackers in a horizontal line in their attacking play. That’s how I came to that conclusion. It’s my opinion, as I said. It’s not fact-checked. But it’s strange to notice that they don’t use the full pitch.
In the past, there have been a lot of governance, administrative and initiative issues with the PHF. Have you got any assurances from the PHF on those grounds?
Firstly, in the past they had funds but the funds were not used in a good way. So they had their financial problems, were almost down….Then they made changes, and when you make changes, it never goes smoothly. You make a change, you get disappointed. You change again, you get disappointed again. Because people are inexperienced. So it’s part of their learning process, the growing process.
Meanwhile, the consequences are huge. So the decline of Pakistan hockey kept on. That means people lost their interest, and the sponsors and supporters of Pakistan hockey were withdrawing. But at the same time, it gave new energy to some people to at least try to change. A result of that attempt to change is that I’m there now (as head coach).
Before I came, they got guarantees from the Pakistan government about the funding. They have guarantees from sponsors about a certain level of funding…(But) we need to perform…If you look at India, the players got rich from a bronze medal (at the Olympics). The celebration was like (winning) a gold medal. That’s how the subcontinent is eager for success again. The moment you can be successful, or you are on the way up, then suddenly support grows everywhere.
So my message to Pakistan and the Pakistani players is don’t look backwards in history…Think of it as a brilliant time. The guys were fantastic, but what they did was (in) another era…If a team like Belgium, which was No. 18 twelve years ago and have now turned themselves into Olympic and world champions, can do it, why can’t we. That’s where we can learn from.

You talk about structure and changing a lot of things. If you look at India, they not only brought in foreign coaches but also a scientific approach. Is Pakistan willing to change on those levels?
If you want to reach the top of the world, you have to do it science-based. Yes, Pakistan understands that this is a serious part of hockey. I told that Pakistani players are good at dodging but lacking in many aspects of the game. That should change. If you have specialists in Pakistan, we will use them. If they are not there, we will get them from abroad. Wherever we get them from, I don’t care. But we want to grow and we need to take the team in the right direction.
Can we do that all at once? No. We will take time. India showed us that it’s possible. We don’t need the same long time as India needed because we can learn from it. We can see what they did and learn from the mistakes they made. And one of the biggest mistakes was that for too long they kept talking about how great India was (in the past).
My point is that Pakistan should accept that they declined, and from thereon work hard on a structure-based future. That’s also why I have a contract for five years and not two years or one year because short-term contracts don’t work if you want to achieve long-term results. And a change won’t happen overnight. That is what we talked about and what Pakistan hockey realizes and admits.
They are willing to go for it. Where does it end? I don’t know. I can’t see the future. Maybe in a year I’m not there anymore…because it’s a high-performance sport and it’s about performance. But at least the intention is to grow step by step and see where you reach. That’s also what they have learned from India because India wasted time by firing every coach who was taking up the job and trying to make a start.
What do you want to change the most in Pakistan hockey?
Players are selected on dodging qualities and not on modern hockey qualities. Like can they receive the ball, can they pass the ball well, can they handle stress, are they mentally strong enough, can they deal with disappointments, do they have the ability to improve, do they make the same mistake over and over again or do they change and try things differently? Those are competence-based criteria.
That criteria is mostly not in the eyes of the selectors who actually like dribbling. In their opinion, you’re a good player if you eliminate a lot, score a lot of goals… A player like Arthur van Doren (of Belgium) will hardly get through selection in India and Pakistan because actually he’s a boring player. He receives the ball and passes. That’s it…You don’t see him scoring many goals and eliminating many opponents, but what he does is he makes others play better.

There is the question of time as well. The next World Cup is in 2023 and Pakistan’s only chance to qualify remains through the Asia Cup, which will be held next year. Have you been told anything about that as an immediate goal?Pakistan would want to play this edition of the World Cup…
We talked about it. We didn’t say it’s an absolute must. We want to work on growth, we want to work on development, we want to create a team. We believe that we can do it because qualifying for the World Cup means top four in Asia. In the Asia Cup, we need to make the semi-finals. With all due respect, I think that is something we can do. So we discussed it and I sincerely believe that we can make it to that World Cup.
Roelant Oltmans left his job as Pakistan coach allegedly because of lack of funding and salary issues. What have you been offered?
I will not tell you what I get exactly, but I can tell you it is something I am satisfied with. I don’t do this for money, I do it because I have passion for hockey. I do this because I want Asian hockey to be back where it belongs. I see potential in Pakistan hockey. I had other offers as well, but I chose Pakistan. Why? Because I sincerely believe that they can’t go lower than this and should not go. Secondly, the Pakistan government is supporting hockey at the moment. They have given guarantees for a certain period. Depending on the result, they will reassess.
After how much time will they reassess your and the team’s performance?
They will reassess in another two years, but I am convinced. We have the World Cup in 2023. In that World Cup, I would not just want to play, but also make it to the quarterfinals (at least). If we make the quarters, we would have done a very good job.
Performance on the day will make a difference…I also said to people in Pakistan that I can’t guarantee success. I am just a normal human being. What I can guarantee is that I will create a fighting machine, I will create a team that wants to go for it.