Looking on the greater image: Fulton mentioned that he’ll try to give everybody possibilities within the FIH Pro League.
| Photo Credit: Biswaranjan Rout
The Indian males’s hockey team landed within the metropolis hoping to get its Olympic preparations on observe within the FIH Pro League on the venue it’s most comfy in, but for the previous two days, it has been attempting to keep away from the contentious issue of a participant being accused of sexual misconduct, staying below the radar to concentrate on the duty at hand as a substitute.
On Friday, Captain Harmanpreet Singh most popular to not remark, solely saying that he was “named in the list of 29 probables and the coach has said he will keep changing the team so hopefully he (Varun) will get a chance later and be with us.”
Coach Craig Fulton was extra forthcoming, admitting it had been a challenge but insisting the team was professional enough to keep targeted.
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“If you take it from outside in, of course, it’s a challenging situation. At the same time, you’ve got a level of professionalism and you have to have plans in place. If you took it as an injury, what are the plans in place? There was always a plan for anyone who gets injured and if Varun is not here, we are going with the values we hold in the group. We have a situation but we have plans to keep everyone focused. It’s a distraction and it’s not great but we need to move forward,” Fulton insisted on the eve of the team’s opening sport towards Spain.
These can be India’s final matches at residence earlier than Paris and the team goals to use them to put together for the highway forward, together with getting nearer to the ultimate Olympic squad.
“These games are really important but we are still five months away and we want to get as much out of this block as we can. It is the home stretch but it is also about us confirming our Olympic squad. We have 29 players here, 24 in the playing squad and we will be trying to give everyone a chance across the two legs here.
“Then we have to keep developing our game, our playing style, individual players and the combinations within that. Valencia and South Africa gave us the ability to do that. At Valencia, we didn’t have much of a training block beforehand because of the Nationals but SA was definitely in the right direction. Performance is also a challenge, stringing performances together with consistency is a priority,” he added.
About the team itself, Fulton admitted ending was an space the team was trying to get higher. “We lacked conversion in the final third, that is something we are looking to work on. We have a nice attacking style, converting those chances into goalscoring opportunities is going to be everyone’s focus point but the main thing is to be able to defend and then counter-attack,” he confused.
