Times of India: Looking to be more dynamic in our attack: Oltmans

By Sunil Subbaiah

BENGALURU: With the Rio Olympics less than five months away, Indian hockey team’s head coach Roelant Oltmans is hard at work, developing a strong defence strategy. “We need to improve our defence. We’re trying to add a new way – it’s not completely new – of defending. We’re also looking to be more dynamic in our attack. These are the two main things that matter to us because we have to be less predictable. We have more forwards in the camp this time. And the difference among them is not that big, so it’s going to be a good fight,” the Dutchman explained.

“We haven’t played any match since the HWL Final. We’ve had a few physical tests and they are looking encouraging. We are where we want to be at this moment,” the 61-year old coach added after the team’s three-hour training session at the SAI, South Centre here on Wednesday. As many as 33-Indian probables are at a month-long camp to prepare for upcoming tournaments.

Pleased with his penalty corner specialists, Oltmans said drag-flickers Rupinder Pal Singh and VR Raghunath are peaking. “They have improved a lot. I was pleased with the conversion rate in the HWL Final. Also in the HIL, Rupinder scored against all the top goalkeepers in the world. Raghunath didn’t push too many but the ones he pushed were very dangerous. Harmanpreet and Gurjinder did well too,” he said.

The team will get an opportunity put their preparations to test when they travel to Malaysia for the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup at Ipoh in April and the Champions Trophy in England in June. Dwelling on the gruelling schedule ahead, Oltmans said, “We travel for Sultan Azlan Shah, then the Champions Trophy followed by the Six Nations event in Valencia and stop at Madrid for five days en route to Rio. In Rio we play a couple of practice games. That’s almost 21-22 games. It’s quite a number but it’s good. We’re also using the services of some new players in the camp. It’s a chance for some of them to get exposure as well. We have enough matches for them. The (first team) players can’t play all the games.”

INJURY WOES

Meanwhile, the trio of Birendra Lakra (defender), Dharamvir Singh (midfielder), Devinder Walmiki (midfieder), currently nursing injuries suffered during the Hockey India League, will be out of the team for the Azlan Shah event.