Mumbai: India hockey coach Michael Nobbs was happy with the team's bronze-medal finish in the recently concluded Azlan Shah Cup ahead of the London Olympics but said that the eight-time Olympic champions can only improve by playing against tough teams regularly.
"We need to play more matches against tougher teams," said Nobbs late Monday night after the team arrived here at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International airport.
The Australian said it was time for India to play regularly against top teams like Germany, the Netherlands and Australia.
"I would like to play against Germany, Holland and Australia more. If you want to be the best team at some point of time, you need to play against the best teams. You only learn by losing occasionally," said Nobbs.
Nobbs admitted that picking the final squad for the Olympics would indeed be a tough task for him.
"It's going to be really tough. It would be one of the toughest things in my life. Everyone wants to be in the team for London Olympics but we can chose only 16," Nobbs said
"The next few weeks at the camp will be crucial. We really need to work on our attack. Even against Argentina, we reached the circle so many times but we just blew the opportunities.
"We've got to get better. When you play top teams, you have to learn a little bit of change in style. If you don't hit the ball then you are not going to win," he said.
(IANS)
