Indian Coach Michael Nobbs expresses concerns over goalkeeping section – Hockey News
The Indian hockey team has been announced for the upcoming Asian Champions Trophy. However, the goalkeeping section has failed to impress Michael Nobbs, the Chief Hockey Coach of India. In his views, the custodians in the Indian team are standing far away
from World Number one Australia.
Speaking to the media at the Sport Authority of India, Michael expressed reservations over the four goalies participated in the trails. He stated, “The four goalkeepers I've seen at the trials so far (Bharat Chetri, Adrian D' Souza, P.R. Sreejesh and Kamaldeep
Singh) I don't think are as good as the Australian goalkeepers. So it's a concern.” It is pertinent to mention here that the selectors expressed similar concerns a week ago.
Replying to a query, he was of the opinion that there were no major differences among all the said goalies. He added, “None of them have stood out. If you look at the goalkeepers for Australia, they stand out; they're world-class. That's what we're looking
for in India.”
The trainer was of the opinion that the current goalkeepers were improving their games with continues practice. However, they would have to put extra efforts to upgrade their status. Explaining the situation, Nobbs stated that the skills to block the short
corners are need of the hour in the fast-paced game.
He, however, expressed disappointment saying that all the four goalies have same problem in this regard. They all were tested on number of occasions but they failed to stop the short corners in the training session, he added. In his views, the forward line
is getting improvement but not the defensive-line. This situation can cause problems as many top teams can easily exploit a weak defensive-line during a match.
Nobbs opined that the real situation could not come out until they face some experienced teams. It would really assist them to know the actual worth of the goalies as well the real faults in this regard.
The trainer further informed that they were mulling to take the services of former Australian goalie Damon Diletti to train the Indian custodians. He maintained that Diletti was an outstanding goalkeeper and could be called on any occasion in order to upgrade
this section. Conversely, the trainer stated that such situation will be come out if they failed to do so. There is extensive hockey experience in India and firstly they would try the overcome weak areas, he added.
Lastly the coach stated that four-nation Punjab Gold Cup Tournament was postponed till the next year due to unavailability of teams like Argentina and New Zealand. Earlier, the tournament was scheduled to play from September 21 to October 04, 2011.
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