Commonwealth Games 2018 | We’d want to focus on ourselves, says coach Sjoerd Marijne
Indian hockey team coach Sjoerd Marijne believes that it is better to focus on themselves rather than concentrating on the opponents ahead of the 2018Commonwealth Games. He also added that Sardar Singh and Ramandeep Singh were dropped from the Commonwealth Games team for various reasons.
Marijne said that it is important for his team to see clips of other teams to their style of play, but the results eventually depend on their own performance.
“We’d want to focus on ourselves. Teams like Pakistan, England… it doesn’t matter. It’s about our own performance. Our key points, we have to do them good. The more we are busy with ourselves, the less pressure we feel. Of course, you have to show some clips from other countries, you have to know what they are doing,” Sjoerd Marijne said in a press conference.
When asked about facing Pakistan in the opening game, Marijne said that the team will train hard and prepare well. Also, the presence of India’s former coach Oltmans in the opposition camp will not affect much.
“We train hard, we prepare well and be ready for the first match against Pakistan. I know (Roelant) Oltmans is there, he knows a few things about India but a few things changed in the last few months. It will be a really good challenge,” the Indian coach said.
In the team announced for the upcoming Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Sardar Singh and Ramandeep Singh were notable exclusions. Sardar who captained India in the recently-concluded Sultan Azlan Shah Cup failed to score a single goal in the tournament where India finished 5th. On the other hand, it was the exclusion of Ramandeep from the CWG squad that came as a surprise. Ramandeep, in the forward line, scored four goals – including two against champions Australia, assisted twice and injected the ball for his fellow young attackers.
The coach felt that Sardar didn’t convince him enough and hence he was dropped and midfielders who can also score were picked.
“It’s not only in Azlan Shah but also in Asia Cup. We also saw him in the training. We pick midfielders who can also score. That’s what you saw in New Zealand. There’s diversity to the players we picked and that’s why we picked them for that position,” he explained.
The coach remarked that Ramandeep is a good player but needs to improve.
“Raman is a good player. He played well in New Zealand and Azlan Shah. But we still want him to improve. We picked other players who also did very well. Dilpreet (Singh) scored a lot of goals in the New Zealand tour, he learns quickly. In defense and attack, he’s spectacular. We have Akashdeep (Singh) also in that position. We compared with them. And at the moment we chose them because they have good speed,” the 43-
Commenting on India’s Sultan Azlan Shah Cup performance, he said that the team did well despite the disappointing results.
“I think we did really well. Only the results were not always good. If you saw our matches against Argentina and Australia, you’d know how close we were. And, we drew against England, who played with their best side. The only match that was disappointing was the match against Ireland – and that happens with an inexperienced squad. Of course, we wanted to end higher. But we did really well. And, a lot of players have some experience at the international level. They are the future
Marijne also
The format of the Hockey World Cup has been undergoing constant changes. But the Indian coach is not too concerned by it. He said that the team will be busy with the things that are in their control.
“I am not too bothered by that. If that’s the way they want it, we’ll do it like that. That’s fine with us. We will be busy with things we can control,” Marijne added.
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