A lot of work needs to be done, says Issanaye

LAHORE: Pakistan’s Brazilian volleyball coach Issanaye Ramires Ferraz has said that they still have load of points to work on in order to develop the national brigade ahead of the 19th Asian Games slated to be held in Hangzhou, China, next month.

“We have a lot of points to work on,” Issanaye told ‘The News’ hours after the team returned home on Monday after finishing seventh in the Asian Senior Men’s Volleyball Championship in Urmia, Iran.

“We have to increase the performance level of our block besides making some adjustments in our offensive system and mindset also,” he said.

“And still I am working generally to improve the team to perform better in the Asian Games. The most important point is our players are motivated to improve and hopefully they will deliver better in the Asian Games,” Issanaye said.

In Urmia’s Asian Championship, Pakistan started their journey brightly when they conquered Bangladesh 3-0 in their Group F opener. In their second round league game they went down to South Korea 3-1. In the round of 12 Pakistan were beaten by strong Iran 3-0 which put the Green-shirts out of title contention.

In the classification game for the 7-10 place, Pakistan defeated Indonesia 3-2 to set up a 7th place clash with Bahrain where the Green-shirts prevailed 3-1 last Saturday. Issanaye said that he is working on introducing a new system and hopefully very soon the boys will adopt it thoroughly.

“We have been introducing a new system in the team. In my opinion the team is transferring 40 to 50 percent to the match performance. So we need to still work on the area to perform better in the Asian Games,” Issanaye said.