Pro Kabaddi League 2017 Season 5: Telugu Titans coach tired of watching his team make the same mistakes

On Tuesday, the Telugu Titans were handed their third straight loss at home in the Pro Kabaddi League. They went down 18-31 to a far superior U.P Yoddha side who completely dominated the home team from the get-go. Things aren’t looking great for the Titans and coach, Naveek Kumar, is tired of watching his side make the same mistakes again and again.

“In defence, we keep making the same mistakes, against Patna we did the same, against Bangalore again we repeated it and now today we had planned not to repeat this mistake against U.P Yoddha but we once again committed the same mistake,” he said.

Questioned further on the kind of errors his players were committing, the coach made no attempt to hide his feelings, revealing what exactly is wrong with the Titans. Naveen reckons the team have not learnt from their practice sessions.

“During the do or die raids we attempt a super raid. Instead, if we just score a bonus point and leave it, we will still be equal in the match. We need to control our raiding mistakes and in defence we’ve conceded too many super raids too,” the coach explained.

Naveen though doesn’t believe that captain, Rahul Chaudhari has lacked support from his colleagues, suggesting that circumstances have led everyone to believe that there hasn’t been any support from the other players.

“I don’t think so. Everyone is supporting Rahul Chaudhari. Rakesh has been doing all he can, Vikas too. But there are bound to be mistakes in the game. If we would have won you would have said there has been support but since we’re losing this is the case,” he stated.

Post their damaging loss against U.P, the coach revealed that he may be forced to make some changes to the starting line-up. “Maybe 1-2 players I might have to change. The confidence has taken a hit but it hasn’t suffered so much that we cannot win future matches. We’re playing well but still losing so our plans haven’t worked properly,” the coach accepted.

In an attempt to ensure no further damage is done, Naveen believes that he might not be able to make wholesale changes at this point of the competition. With games coming thick and fast, he might only be able to switch a couple of players and test new plans out. But he did accept that he was disappointed with the Iranian players in the squad.

“We can’t change the entire situation now, whoever plays at home will not have time to plan to change their entire defence. We have Iranian players but due to time constraints, we haven’t been able to train them properly. They are not able to play in certain situations, whatever I have expected them to do, they have been unable to do it,” he signed off.