Tuesday, September 20, 2016

A Fan Analysis of Mourinho's Manchester United Current situation

3 matches and 3 defeats in the span of 8 days is not the result what you had expected when Jose was appointed as the manager of Manchester united, but it had happened. All of a sudden, there emerges a mild crisis and series of doubts about Mourinho's tactics. Is the special one losing his special touch and becoming an outdated coach while comparing to his young counterparts? I would say a big no because the special one cannot become a miserable one in 18 months.
            With Jose around, you can feel an aura of positivism while winning and on the flip side you may feel more negativity while losing. This negativity cost his job at Real Madrid and Chelsea. He cannot afford the same mistake to take place in Old Tr-afford. With the defeat against Watford, Mourinho has lost 14 of his last 32 games and it may be shocking and sound terrible for a man whom it took 105 games to lose 14 matches earlier. He himself pointed out last year that if the losses had occurred early in his career, he may accept, but it is occurring at the wrong time of mid life of his managerial career.Coming to Manchester United, the problems are the continuity of Louis van Gaal's footballing philosophy and the poor form of certain key players including Captain Rooney. 
             The first and foremost job of Joe should be finding the correct formation and build the team around Paul Pogba. Playing players at different positions is also hurting United. The best example is the game against Watford, where Joe used multiple strategies like playing Rashford and Martial at left and right wing initially and when that move backfired, he switched them vice-versa and Rashfordto his credit involved himself more when played at right than left. It may sound unfair but still it is important that his forwards must improve the standards of ball clearing while performing their defensive duties. Marcus was also responsible for the first goal since his poor ground clearance leads to the move that created Watford's first goal. While considering martial, His head injury and the bit fair crunching tackle might forced to him retire quickly but he must aware enough to know he needs to improve his standards in order to satisfy his manager. Joe cannot expect martial to become Eden Hazard of Chelsea. 
             The perennial problem surrounding Manchester United is Rooney's Form because his performance was completely awful. While addressing about Rooney's roleJoe said that earlier he will play as no10, 9 or even 9 and half, but never an 8. But English Captain's poor form led Jose to play him in the midfield role again in order to give Pogba a more advanced role.
Time to Strike Back: Boom!
                 Restlessness also affects Manchester United and Jose was wrong to left Rooney out of his Europa league fixture against Feyenoord because the pitch was a tad slow one and the united players really found hard to speed up the movement. In a game like this you will score through long balls or from the corners, with both Rooney and Valencia were rested , ball movement from wing were less until the introduction of Ashley Young.  Playing Mata instead of Rooney in the game is not a wise decision since Mata is more creative and instinctive when the game is played at a rapid pace Whereas Rooney of right now, will spread the play wide by passing to the wingers, it is where united lost the plot at Feyenoord. I would personally want Jose to play the Europa league with academy players (Other than main fourteen) and the form out players like Rooney and Martial. It may sound ridiculous, but it would give more rest time to his main players and the form out players can earn back their form and also gives a chance to academy prospects. 
          And for formations Mourinho can prefer former united player Owen Hargreaves idea of 4-3-1-2 instead of 4-2-3-1. In 4-3-1-2 Mourinho can use Pogba at left and veteran Carrick at the center and Herrera at the right and at upfront Ibra and Rooney will be supported by Henrikh Mkh\Mata. I would personally prefer the 4-3-2-1 with the previous midfield players and will play Lingard\Rashford with Mkh as attacking duo with Ibra at the front. If I were to play the same 4-2-3-1 position, I would choose Daley Blind as the defensive midfielder instead of Fellani and Pogba as the N0-8. The reason is quite simple that Fellani is not a Matic (who can make some extraordinary individualistic run and along with monstrous tackling). As Paul Scholes (I also feel) said Fellani might be playing well but he is not the partner Paul needed at the center. With the schedule is more tight and hard in the upcoming weeks, It is high time that Mourinho and his men's started to react or else Jose will be the one who will be in more trouble than his players. Win or Lose, I will always back and support Mourinho and don't be surprised if Jose men's turn the tide rather sooner than later.

Note: Views shared here are completely personal as a fan of Jose and his men..,

Thursday, September 8, 2016

My First National Exposure or Experience

Seeing the title, don't come into any early conclusions or judgments. Because, i am here to share my happiness on meeting national players, whom i had and has seen only in TV. From a child who used to play and worship hockey and then from playing hockey to watching hockey, my life has changed a lot in the past years. This change doesn't change one thing that is my love for the game. My passion or love has grown only bigger and better year by year. The only name I heard or know about hockey during my childhood days (Before Sixth standard) was Mr. Dhanraj Pillay. When I boarded a residential school for my sixth standard, I get connected and came to know more about the game. Once, after I started to play the game seriously, I have begun to know and learn more about it. It was all fun and great but like every journey it also needs to end at some point and mine ended where it all begun (My school). Then there is no way to play the game in my college days as there was no team in my college (but in the prospectus they said they had hockey team). I switched the gear and started to write sports articles about the other sports (Special thanks to former Justice Markanday Katju). And after writing few more articles I went out of ideas. Actually, out there to know the purpose of writing and to whom and why I am writing (I still can't find the answer). Then I said to myself may be I am done with this and let's stick to the usual things. But before the Rio Olympics again my heart felt that I should write a team preview of our hockey team, so I returned to write a preview after three years, which I did successfully. But, the article was rejected by the editorial team of the famous online sports journal (where I was a contributing writer) and they said that the flow of the article is imbalanced and standards were not up to mark and they decided to scrap that one for good. It was more like a tight slap but I knew that would happen and my confidant encouraged to post that piece in my personal blog which got few hundred reads and likes. I honestly want the feedback (very few compared to the likes) than liking because it can only state where I am standing. And after a month's time Olympics topics got over and I returned to my normal days. But the reason for stating the above things is whatever happens or happened my life and love was all sports and sports persons. To be honest, I never had the chance to meet or saw an Olympian or Indian team representing players (Thanks to ISL, I saw a few from a distance including My heroes Sachin and Baichung). When I came to know that MCC led Murguppa Hockey will held from September 1, I promised myself that I would watch any one of the matches. The promise became a reality yesterday and I went to the stadium. Initially I went there to know the ticket price because I am unaware of the free entry.  After entering the field, all of a sudden it became a dream again, because I was sitting just behind the player’s cabin and wondering is it real or day dream. When the players are lined up I got my wish lists ticked, as I had witnessed the presence and performance of multiple Olympians like Raghunath, Kothajith, and S.K.Uthappa. With a 40 to 50 feet distance, I am seeing them and I doubted that whether I can take a picture or not. And to my bad the match got over and next match also started. In the second match, I witnessed the India represented young players like Affan Yousuf, Jasjit sigh, Talwinder and once the match got over I went down and stood near the cabin and eagerly waiting to talk to the players. But the nerves of meeting national players caught me in rapid pace and I was standing still at the place for nearly ten minutes. During this time the players even went and came back after their warm down routine. I was still standing with a shock, fear or nervousness. But after seeing the ball boys (sports hostel kids) fun time with the players, I braced myself and went straight to the Affan Yousuf and congratulated him for his brace against Karnataka and he thanked me for my nice words and almost I got fainted. Then I turned my attention to Malak singh and eventually got a selfie with him, but I  was so nervous to ask for a second selfie since the first one was not a clear one. Then, with  a goose bumps I went to Talwinder singh (who was on his way to the hotel) and took a selfie and even had a second one as the previous one was not clear. While clicking selfie with Talwinder, some one from back teased him, I looked back and it was Jasjit Singh and I requested him for a selfie and he obliged and took a photo with me. On his way out I had a small chat with Jasjit Singh and I thanked him and left the stadium. Here, the writings can't express my feelings easily but it was like rumble in the jungle because words are not coming out of my mouth and those coming out are in a semi and incomplete and I was rushing like I need to catch a plane or train. But the happiness of meeting them is yet to be sink in and I was like "nejamavae adhu nama thana" feeling moment. This write up may look like childish or crap but everyone agrees with me that meeting the persons (Heroes) who make and made us proud globally is always a fruitful and a life worth moment.









Friday, August 5, 2016

A Fan Perspective of Indian Men's Hockey Team Of RIO 2016


The success of sports persons can be measured by the medals won at the International arena or by the longevity they survive in the top circuit.As such case, History favors Indian hockey team as it has eight gold medal in its cabin. But be like every fallen champion, the Indian Team too had seen some all time lows like wooden spoon finish to not qualify for Olympics
 With another Olympics at stake, What makes our team more than a mere contender in RIO?  The answer is quite simple, it is their unity and cohesiveness that sets them apart.This team was in the making of four years and whenever the controversies stirred, the team remained unrattled. After Qualifying through Asian games 2014, this team has played nearly 16 International tournament and had an ample time to test their bench strength and various strategies, which they did quite efficiently. This team was riding high on confidence after the successful outing at the champions trophy.
     

Considering the forward line, the team is gifted with a flashing S.V.Sunil to Akashdeep’s sublime skill scoring and to the quirky Nikkin to the placing Ramandeep. The forward line may not be as dominating as others but when it comes to efficient performing, they will be second to none.
The team relies heavily on the defenders and the midfield masters. With or without captain’s armband, Sardar Singh will always lead the team as senior most figure and he remains the centerpiece around whom the team is built upon. His uncanny ways of finding gaps will be crucial for the forwards. Manpreet Singh and other midfielders will be asked more to defend and track back against the top teams to avoid the last minute conceding of goals(Unsolved puzzle in Indian Hockey) .
The arrival of Harmanpreet eases the pressure on Rupinder and Raghunath at the back and this trio needs to be accurate in the PC Conversion and defending. At the post, Indian hockey wall P.R.Sreejesh is ready to withhold any stones thrown at him.
 On the whole, the team looks strong on paper and they can beat any team on their given day. But the prime objective will be qualifying for the quarter-final first and then there to take game by game.
                                                              Chak De India

Sunday, March 17, 2013

WHY HISTORY DOES MATTERS A LOT IN INDIAN SPORTS..??


On a regular chat with one of my friend (who is a league one district cricket player), we discussed the preceding of the cricket match played by India against England on the previous day, which was published in the daily. In that, Dilip Vengsarkar criticized Indian team’s lacklustre performance. To my instant shock, my friend asked who Dilip Vengsarkar is, it was then I realised how history matters in developing Indian sports.
WHO IS HE?
WHO IS HE?

 Naturally according to most of the great men and women the word history often gives the meaning of “his+story” that is to express their success story to the next generation. They did this to show how success can be achieved after learning from failure.
Though India is a nation of unaltered characteristics right from the period of civilizations, now it’s time for her to alter her views towards sports and its developments.
There is also a question which needs to be answered immediately by our predecessor is “Is the history of our nation in all fields rightly conveyed to each and every citizen?” certainly the answer will be “No; it doesn’t conveys the message effectively”.
We miserably fail to understand the fact that history serves as a pathway for the present generation from our seniors and that’s why it matters a lot for our nation since it can inspire millions to take up game as lives not only careers with utmost effect and respect. More over knowing about the evolution, development, modernization and popularization of games will teach a player the great morals of sports.
In India the other than cricket, hockey and few other games the importance of the games and its player’s history remains an unfinished and unnoticed work. This methodology needs to be completely eradicated.
For the betterment of games history let me share my ideas. First, its coaches at junior levels all across the second largest populated country, needs to be clearly and correctly educated about their respective games history. Their role is not limited to develop players mentally, skilfully and physically alone because, it is here, where the seed sown is nurtured and strengthened with its roots grown deep into the ground. So, there is no better place than this figurative history. Once the seeds germinate successfully, then it has to be watered (monitored) regularly. Here the watering refers to maintain in the prodigies love for the game. For this the coach needs to constantly allocate a session in their weekly regime on passing the history down to the younger guns.
Reading or knowing about the legends of our game will automatically produce a positive vibes or Goosebumps among us. It’s pretty similar to the feeling we feel in our soul when we read about our freedom and its fighter’s history. Sometimes it so happens that we get Goose bumps.
For a developing nation like ours, we always seeks an inspiration from a developed nation, but here lies the mantra that is if we are well versed of our own history then there is no need of inspiration required to perform at higher level because, it tells the successful stories of many people who made the world to look up to them.
The biggest and never ending problem of our country’s sports administration is that we don’t have time for each and every legend in the fields as we opt only for the higher profile names and we don’t care or even forget the contribution of those other players around them. We need to treat every legend equally.
With the advancement of technology we need to regularly make documentaries or biopic of individual or teams to motivate the generation to come. The family members or team members of the winning teams or great legend need to come forward in conveying the exact happenings of the events with may be considered as a sports tutorial for the upcoming players.
The purity of the game will only be observed when we know the tradition of the game. Taken into the account is Chess, which was a based on the ancient Indian game Chaturanga. Even today, after all this years we are still one of the toppers in this game as the tradition of the game is well known or followed by our people.
Many experts say that India is lagging in international arena is due to lack of flag bearers or inspiring faces. Off course it is true debate that how long can we exits by singing the same symphony of long-gone legends. The main purpose of the history that it needs to be rewritten, then only the meaning of creation of history is achieved. Here I am happy to mention few legends, Michael Phelps of USA and Usain Bolt of Jamaica because the evolved as great sports men by beating their own records thus rewriting their own history. We also need to remember that every run Sachin scores in international cricket is a new world record and every world title that Vishwanathan Anand wins is a new record for us.
In the world of group events individual alone cannot make a difference every time but individual together can make a difference. Because there are players like Dravid, Dhanraj Pillay, Anand etc., continuously guiding or even sharing the games history to the coming generation which is something really a happy news to the sports world of India.
I conclude the article with a remembrance of small incident took place in the divorced USSR, where its second leader Joseph Stalin’s daughter once told him that she is going to study medicine as higher studies but he urged her to study the history first and then go for anything. He did this to remember her daughter that history not only tells us the tradition and evolution but it also makes us well prepared to face the challenge ahead.
This incident makes me think that “A player will always be an incomplete package if he fails to follow the games root and tradition”.

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

The Real Face of Indian Olympic Association


The future of the world looks uncertain, the future of this nation looks uncertain, and likewise, the future of India’s Olympic participation looks uncertain too. “Enough is enough, let us part ways” are the words commonly uttered by separating lovers. Ironically, this scene bore perfect resemblance to the current scenario of IOA (Indian Olympic Association),  IOC (International Olympic Committee) and our government.
                                                                                                                                                                                                       

The ban on IOA is hardly two months old, but the effect of the ban is set to haunt the next generation too.
But IOA is holding steady by not obeying the Olympics sports conduct rules in its office elections by following the quote “Every dog is a lion at home” and they are confident in their decision to put a full stop to India’s Olympic dreams.
Right or wrong, everybody seeks a bail plea or appeal against the judgement when they face the consequences. But IOA is different, as they did not move towards the court of Arbitration of sports and did not lay down their differences with IOC. Instead, the IOAthinks that they held their head high. This ban may now force IOA to start their own multinational sports and games events like Olympics to prove their mettle to IOC. May be the event will be named as AOG (Anti-Olympic Games). It is our natural and as well as national habit to start our very own organisation or own party if we are thrown out from one party or organisation, and we also consider our previous boss as our arch rival.
In the AOG, the members may be from previously and currently banned countries by IOC. And also there will not be any wondering, as IOA may seek the help of holy-spirit Kalmadi, Chautala, Lalit Modi or even Lance Armstrong.
The IOA will welcome not only humans but each and every creature of god to come and participate in the AOG. The main virtue of being an AOG player is that they need to be a tainted athlete.
In AOG, both winners and losers will be awarded medals and they will make sure of high cash prizes for their performance. Here, losers are awarded not at the prospect of winning next time but on the support they provide to AOG. In the history of world games and sports events, AOG will be the first and only games where the winner’s face will be carved on the medal itself. This medal will be a rare and distinct honour to them. The players will be allowed to party late night. The players will also be allowed to take part with the intake of EPO (performance-enhancing drug).
Here, the IOA  will try to make a statement to IOC that they are not cowards  but “heroes” in facing tough situations.
Most probably, IOA will consider India as their home land before expanding their campaigns to all other continents and even other planets and galaxies. Though Olympic Games are played once in four years, the AOG may be regularly played at a gap of a year or two.
There will be no big problems for IOA in finding title and other sponsors, since they can find more people who can donate them enough money for conducting a multinational event.
The IOA might start a new worldwide channel to globalize and popularize the Anti-Olympic Games among the doors of the millions of hearts living around nooks and corners of this world.
With the high and clever thinking, the IOA-led AOG will soon sail past the Olympic games to emerge as the world’s biggest multinational event.
The IOA might be thinking of echoing Julius Caesar words, “He came, He saw, He conquered”.
But the thoughts of fans and players will similarly echo,“We owed, We followed, We suffered and will suffer”.
Disclaimer: The above article is a work of fiction and is not to be taken seriously.

Monday, October 15, 2012

RESURGENCE OF INDIAN NATIONAL FOOTBALL TEAM








        In 1950 when the Indian Football Team was asked to participate in the World cup, they allegedly rejected the invitation on grounds of FIFA’s ban on barefoot play. But after nearly sixty two years we are yet to make an appearance in the World Cup. This is a poor reflection of a team that once dominated the entire Asian continent by becoming the first Asian country to reach the semi-finals of football in Olympics. It is not that we don’t have enough quality to produce a world class players, but we generally lack in the style of play, physique and mainly in development of Infrastructure.

As things stand, the Indian football players are as skilled as their European counter-parts, but their way of training makes European players world class players. Look at players like Baichung Bhutia, I.M.Vijayan, they are highly skilled and talented but the style of play is different from the Europeans. Moreover our infrastructure and local leagues are not up to a world class level. So it is necessary to send our players to foreign countries to train  and  experience the world class infrastructure.





       The impact created by Baichung Bhutia on Indian football is huge and unimaginable. He honed his skills effectively during his three year stint with England second division club Bury FC. He will always inspire the current and future generation players to try their luck at European football.

As we all know, India is a sleeping giant, top European football clubs have started to invest in Indian football by setting up their academies to identify the young Indian talents and train them to reach top levels in football.

There are many people behind the growth of Indian football, but former coach Bob Houghton’s futuristic idea of developing young players paid dividends in the form of good performances from the U-22 team at AFC Asian championship qualifying rounds. The U-22 team under Aussie coach Arthur Papas managed to defeat Lebanon and Turkmenistan and  hold Asian giant UAE to a draw and show a spirited performance against strong opponents like Iraq and Oman before going down by a small margin.




The year 2012 is a great year for Indian football as many players from India followed the footsteps of legends  Mohammed Salim, Baichung by successfully attending trials at top European clubs. Indian football team current captain Sunil Chhetri went one step further by signing a contract with Portuguese giants sporting Lisbon’s reserve side, thus making him the second Indian player after Bhutia to play professional football in Europe. Moreover U-22 football team goalkeeper, Gurpreet Singh Sandhu attended a trial at English Premier League team Wigan Athletic and his countryman and India’s No 1 custodian, Subrata paul attended a two week trial at RB Leipzig, a German fourth division club owned by Red Bull . Even though RB Leipzig plays in fourth division, its infrastructure and coaching methods are world class and it also owns an artificial grass ground for training. And Mehtab Hussain is another player who attended trails for a Scottish club.



Appointing  Wim Koevermans as the head coach of Indian football team was another giant step taken by the AIFF. The Dutchmen who rose to fame with his unique methods of coaching the Netherlands Youth team, which developed players like Arjen Robben Robin Van Persie etc.. is aiming to change the face of Indian football team. The time is now for India to make best use of its resources and aim to qualify for the FIFA world cup in the next 10 years.



-V.ARUN KUUMAR




























Friday, July 20, 2012

BHARAT RATNA FOR SPORTSMEN


Justice Markanday Katju- the Chief of press council of India
made a headline again last year by saying the decision to
award Bharat Ratna for celebrities and sportsperson is making mockery of the award. Mr.M.Katju must be known that "If Musicians are deserved for Bharat Ratna , then why not sportspersons…..?"

Mr.Katju must understand that “sports persons are the
people who carry their patriotism through their vein. Let
us see two successful sportsmen of India. First Major.Dhyan
Chand who carried and anchored India to three successive
gold medals in hockey at Olympics(1928,1932,1936) and
he is widely regarded as the undisputed king of Hockey. His
achievements took a major part in declaring hockey as our
national game.

“History will never forgive Hitler and Hitler will never forget
Jesse Owens and Dhyan Chand”.

Jesse Owens, who made Afro-Americans proud by winning
four gold medals at 1936 Olympics despite racial struggles,
while Dhyan Chand led Indian Hockey Team made Ourselves
proud by refusing to salute the Nazi’s flag at Hitler’s own
backyard thus it became the only team to do so after the
Giant Americans. India roll-coasted Germans by 8-1 margin
in Hockey Finals at Berlin Olympics with Dhyan chand top
scoring by netting 3 goals. Impressed by Dhyan Chand’s
magician style of play, Hitler offered him the General post
at Nazi’s Army with citizenship but Dhyan Chand refused
politely by saying

“I am proud to be Soldier in Indian Army”.

It is because of him that even today we are proudly saying
that we had won more gold medals in Hockey at Olympics.




Like Dhyan Chand, Sachin.R.Tendulkar is also an another
sportsmen who always carries billions of hopes on his
shoulders whenever he enters the Cricket field. He is
considered as an Ambassador of International Cricket and
Indian Sports for a long time.

Mr.Katju must know that “at the age of 16 sachin had never
dreamt of becoming India’s top most celebrity but had only
one desire that is to play cricket for our nation and he did it
in a style by playing over a two decades and also continues to
do for a future decade.”

Dhyan Chand and S.R.Tendulkar tend to inspire the Sports
world like how Mathematics genius Ramanujam and Physics
Genius Sir.C.V.Raman inspired people to achieve success
through Indian Education………..

It is our duty and privilege to salute our heroes who made
our Tricolor to fly high all around the world. Moreover, there
are more legends in Indian sports but these two men are
more than a legend and like mere-immortal.

Finally, it must be known that sportsmen are deserved to get
Bharat Ratna but not everyone.

-V.ARUN KUUMAR