Oltmans wants forwards to be polished

KARACHI: Pakistan head coach Roelant Oltmans has submitted his report to PHF about the performance of the Green-shirts in the recently concluded Asian Games in Jakarta, ‘The News’ learnt on Monday.

According to the sources, Oltmans has prepared a comprehensive report, stating the performance of each player.

He stated that the execution of structure in the possession of the ball needed improvement. The structure is clear to the players but in tight situation the focus is on individual play instead of team effort, he wrote. He said the team scored 46 goals in seven matches.

He said the team was progressing well as Pakistan conceded only four goals, which was less than all other teams. “We need to improve our PC defense as well, although we conceded only three goals on PC during the whole tournament,” he added.

“Although PC conversion ratio increased, we did not score off our last six corners,” he added. He emphasised grooming of forwards. “We need a higher PC conversion rate in top matches from our main drag flickers,” he said.

Oltmans is satisfied with the players’ attitude, both on the field and off the field. Pakistan received three yellow and two green cards. He said that Pakistan scored 47 goals. Seven goals were scored off PCs, 27 were field goals and two on penalty strokes.

Atiq scored eight goals, Toseeq and Ali Shahn six each, Mubashir and Abu Bakar five each, Irfan four, Ejaz, Umar Bhutta and Dilber three each, Rizwan two and Junaid one goal.He added that Pakistan got 48 PCs in the tournament and scored 17 times, a conversion rate of 35 percent, which is much higher than the Commonwealth Games. “But in the main matches we scored 14 percent which is not high enough at this level,” he said.

Oltmans said that Pakistani forwards created 133 opportunities and scored 27 times, a conversion rate of 20 percent. Against Japan, nine opportunities were created and against India 12, but not a single goal could be scored. Oltmans also stressed the need for further improvement in the fitness of the players.