New Indian Express: Defence Key for Olympics Says Oltmans

NEW DELHI:Chief coach Roelant Oltmans said that a well-organised defence will hold the key for the team’s fortunes in next year’s Rio Olympic Games.

Oltmans, who is doubling up as High Performance Director and head coach after the ouster of Paul van Ass, said he was working on building a solid defence and switching to different styles of play in different situations. “Organisation of defence is very important. If your defence is well organised you have confidence while going for attack. If your defence is not well organised you can be in trouble in counter attacks,” Oltmans said.

The Indian men’s team is here for a three-week training stint till September 27 before leaving for New Zealand for a hockey Test series. Asked about other areas which he would want to improve in the Indian team, he said, “We want to be unpredictable and dynamic, to be able to play in different styles according to different situations.”

“In France and Spain (where the team toured recently), we tried to implement these things. We have good players in attack who scored some very good goals like the one by Akashdeep (Singh) and Ramandeep (Singh). We have rooms for improvement in attack.”