Dutch Olympic gold-winning coach Marc Lammers believes the Asian style of hockey is not dead, but needs some changes.

By Anshul Baijal

The Asian sides have taken a major pounding at the 2010 hockey World Cup, with India fighting for a 7th-8th spot while Pakistan will play for 11th-12th position. Korea remains the only Asian nation to have any hope of reaching the semi-finals. But Marc Lammers, who guided the Netherlands women's hockey team to gold at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, believes the Asian style of hockey is not dying but it needs some modifications.

"Korea also play Asian style of hockey but they play to their strengths. The strength is their skill," he said.

"They will not only have to work on their skills, but also have to improve their tactics. Sometimes they play well, but they don't play as a unit. They have to learn to work together in small spaces," he added.

Lammers, who was at the National Stadium on Monday to watch the match between the hosts and South Africa, is impressed with the way India and Pakistan have performed at this year's World Cup, but believes they will have to put in a lot of hard work. "These teams are coming closer the Europeans. Very good young players are coming up now. It is very important for these countries to continue training," said Lammers.

Lammers also said that these teams need to play against big teams to get more exposure. "They need to play a lot more against the European teams. It will be a good for their game and will help the players to learn a lot of things," said the FIH Master Coach.

Lammers was also happy to see the way the Dutch are performing at the world championships and believes the current bunch has a lot of potential. "They did not play well in the last World Cup. They have the best goalkeeper in the world and have a very good drag-flicker. These things are very important in modern hockey," said the 40-year-old.