Bulgaria NT 2014

Quote

Why are the following players missing from the squad for World League? Will they return for WCh?

Setter: Zhekov

Opp: Uchikov

MB: Todorov, Gotsev

Display More

Look at the theme for World League 2014 on page 2.

Quote

Todorov seems to be prone to injuries. I recall that he's out of NT for injury reason a few times already.

Yes. He and Boyan Yordanov are very often injured for the national team but play all season in their clubs without rest. I don't want to say that they don't want to play in national team but they have to rest or recovering from injuries very often when the national teams start. It's not pleasant for me because i want to see them healthy in NT.

Uchikov is missing because Lazarov want so sell Kadankov. He doesn't care if we win medal or not, making profit for him personally and for Lubo Ganev who was the main reason federation to fire Stoychev is what matters.

Quote from andrea

That's ugly. What do you think about the calibre of Kadankov? So Placci as head coach doesn't have full control on NT player selection?

Uchikov is much better than him, that's for sure. Placci stays because he let them interfere. Stoychev didn't let such thing and you saw what happened.

Quote from andrea

That's ugly. What do you think about the calibre of Kadankov? So Placci as head coach doesn't have full control on NT player selection?

My opinion about Kadankov and the squad you can read in the World League thread I used to play mostly against Kadankov when I was in Neftochimik's youth team and, unfortunately, I don't think he has improved much since. These are officially only rumours, but Placci probably doesn't have full control over his selection. I mean I am sure he would love to have Uchikov in the squad. Danail Milushev, for example, is not the same player he used to be in his early 20s, I'd rather have Yordanov and Uchikov as an option. You are right about Teodor Todorov, he is prone to injuries. They play full season where real money is paid, but the World League is often taken as a chance to recharge the batteries and prepare for the tournaments in September, be it a WCH or an ECH.

You haven't missed much if you haven't watched Kadankov He has problems killing the ball, which is ridiculous for an opposite.

It seems official from what I read - Plamen Konstantinov is the new head coach of the NT. The time length of his contract is a matter of negotiation, but with our federation it doesn't make any difference what is written on paper.

Quote from scarpetta

It is too late from Halkbank's president but at last some words about Stoychev.
Halkbank president questioned Stoychev attitude and ethic values and he said next year they will work with a coach who will able to give something to players in terms of sport ethics.
There are many rumors that Turkish players of Halkbank weren't fond of Stoychev because he only cared about foreign players, ''his players''. Despite winning three cups , the team underachieved in terms of quality and it was sure Halkbank wouldn't be in CL final-four, if the management didn't take it.
According to Halkbank president they will announce their setter and coach on Sunday or Monday.

That's absolute nonsense. Coach with ten thousand titles will NEVER let any player unprepared. I am sure they trained with him like never before. I think that the ethic of the president of Halkbank is unquestionably bad.

Quote from raylight

That's absolute nonsense. Coach with ten thousand titles will NEVER let any player unprepared. I am sure they trained with him like never before. I think that the ethic of the president of Halkbank is unquestionably bad.

What is written above questions his ethics, not preparation. However, it says "there are many rumours", which confirms absolutely nothing. To be honest, maybe there's a little piece of truth somewhere out there, Stoychev is famous for his professionalism, not ethics. Besides, I shared internal information recently when I said the Bulgarians in Halkbank were never happy there and they were all looking forward to move out. I should still defend any coach who works in Turkey because he has to cope with the level, middle European level at best, of local players. I doubt any of them is a magician who can make them stars in a season. What they can hope for is Glenn Hoag's work, he's been already there for some time and can expect some more impressive results. There are some interesting youngsters in Arkas, but their results last year were tragic, to confirm what I wanted to say. Last, yes, Halkbank didn't impress throughout most of the season, and yes, they would never make it to the CL final four without the assistance of the bank's money, but they were perhaps the only team (excluding the Russian League semifinals) in the world to actually match Belogorie in season 2013-2014. You have to give him that at least.

It is because of individual talents of players not due to impressive team work.
Turkish chapter was a big minus for Stoychev in terms of professionalism and ethics. As Halkbank coach, he was the best paid coach in the world(he already earned this years money) , Halkbank collected all of ''his players'' and gave him a CL final-four. In the end he didn't even say thanks. He didn't have any relationship with any of his Turkish colleagues because you know he was too good for them
No suprise in Turkey everybody respects Hoag and Castellani but not Stoychev.

Quote from scarpetta

It is because of individual talents of players not due to impressive team work.
Turkish chapter was a big minus for Stoychev in terms of professionalism and ethics. As Halkbank coach, he was the best paid coach in the world(he already learned this years money) , Halkbank collected all of ''his players'' and gave him a CL final-four. In the end he didn't even say thanks. He didn't have any relationship with any of his Turkish colleagues because you know he was too good for them
No suprise in Turkey everybody respects Hoag and Castellani but not Stoychev.

I wrote many times what Stoychev does to players and I will write it again - he trains them much better than other coaches. His teams always play with the lowest level of mistakes and the highest efficiency on serve and attack. Trentino changed many players but continued to win titles and cups, they changed the team with Halkbank and still won all in Turkey and played equal match vs Grozer and Muserskiy. I will give you example with Bulgaria - our NT had much better serve than with Placi, I can recall match with Germany with 11 aces and 6 errors, most of it due to Sokolov and Kaziyski. Sokolov in the matches he participated had much higher efficiency with Stoychev than after, both on club and national level. He teaches them what to do in every possible situation. He is not winning because he has great players, but because he gets the best of his players. Every opponent of Trentino had great players - do you think Zlatanov and Marshall couldn't match Kaziyski and Juantorena, or Wijsmans and Nikolov, or Milijkovic and Marshall? Many equal teams lost from Trentino and Halkbank.

Quote from raylight

I wrote many times what Stoychev does to players and I will write it again - he trains them much better than other coaches. <...> I will give you example with Bulgaria - our NT had much better serve than with Placi, I can recall match with Germany with 11 aces and 6 errors, most of it due to Sokolov and Kaziyski. Sokolov in the matches he participated had much higher efficiency with Stoychev than after, both on club and national level. He teaches them what to do in every possible situation. He is not winning because he has great players, but because he gets the best of his players. Every opponent of Trentino had great players - do you think Zlatanov and Marshall couldn't match Kaziyski and Juantorena, or Wijsmans and Nikolov, or Milijkovic and Marshall? Many equal teams lost from Trentino and Halkbank.

Am I the only one who thinks that Placi achieved much better results than Stoychev, despite the absence of the best player and the lack of a reasonable setter? Aces count, no doubt here, but so does a decent block-defense. I do not think that Bulgaria played as a team under Stoychev, while with Placi (apart from the disastrous WL2014) they looked very much as one self.

Bulgarian NT is not a star team, you have to accept it, while Trentino and Halkbank pretty much were. I would love to believe that Stoychev is capable of developing a tough outfit out of a set of decent-but-not-brilliant players but I can't find any examples of his success in this field. Btw, Konstantinov, in contrast, has made an average Gubernia... well, not a medalist but a definitely a serious contender. His Yugra looked very good too. I am therefore very positive about the Bulgaria NT future :).

Regarding Stoychev's Turkish adventure, one has to agree the expectations were too high. I think that buying a place in F4 for Halkbank was a mistake as they would have gone there anyway, unless a clash with Belgorod (or possibly Kazan?) occurred on the way. Although I disagree that they matched Belgorod this season (losing the 4th set from +5-ish on your own pitch, with the Ref being... hmm-hmm not on the side of the opponent, doesn't impress) but nothing happens immediately. Halkbank bosses clearly failed to commit enough. Regarding the "success" of Hoag/Castellani... has there been any?

Final Four of Arkasspor two years ago was a quite success for Hoag with that average roster About Stoychev, I don't think he had contributed to Turkish volleyball at all. With that roster any Turkish coach could also win the Turkish title. Stoychev would show his class if he would manage to win CL. Halkbank had already booked his slot in final four as host, so Stoychev's only contribution was in semifinal. I am glad that he has left, it was not really logical to pay that much money for such a coach

Quote from powsoff

Am I the only one who thinks that Placi achieved much better results than Stoychev, despite the absence of the best player and the lack of a reasonable setter? Aces count, no doubt here, but so does a decent block-defense. I do not think that Bulgaria played as a team under Stoychev, while with Placi (apart from the disastrous WL2014) they looked very much as one self.

Bulgarian NT is not a star team, you have to accept it, while Trentino and Halkbank pretty much were. I would love to believe that Stoychev is capable of developing a tough outfit out of a set of decent-but-not-brilliant players but I can't find any examples of his success in this field. Btw, Konstantinov, in contrast, has made an average Gubernia... well, not a medalist but a definitely a serious contender. His Yugra looked very good too. I am therefore very positive about the Bulgaria NT future :).

Regarding Stoychev's Turkish adventure, one has to agree the expectations were too high. I think that buying a place in F4 for Halkbank was a mistake as they would have gone there anyway, unless a clash with Belgorod (or possibly Kazan?) occurred on the way. Although I disagree that they matched Belgorod this season (losing the 4th set from +5-ish on your own pitch, with the Ref being... hmm-hmm not on the side of the opponent, doesn't impress) but nothing happens immediately. Halkbank bosses clearly failed to commit enough. Regarding the "success" of Hoag/Castellani... has there been any?

You forget several important points:
1) Placi took the team prepared by Stoychev who send them to the Olympics on the first place. Their personal instructions what to do in each of the thousand possible gaming situations were still fresh. Despite that there was immediate decline in endurance / the games at the end of the olympic cycle/ and in serve quality and in 2013 our serve was the worst since I watch volleyball, e.g. since 1994.
2) Clubs and NT are different. Psychological factors don't play such role in clubs. With Stoychev the NT had the burden of expectations from the public, while with Placi nobody expected anything.
3) Bulgaria had relatively easy way to the semifinals in the olympics.
4) Bulgaria is a star team - Sokolov, Skrimov, Yosifov are pretty big players, Aleksiev too. Good enough to beat Italy ,Serbia and Poland and take bronzes and silvers.
5) You are just not following any data, are you? Teams with Stoychev don't produce errors, the same players make many more errors under other coaching. Teams with Stoychev always have extremely efficient first attack, even Bulgaria had, when psychology was not the factor, or teams like Argentina giving points to the hosts or Poland losing from Slovakia on puprose. The only really weak match we had was against Russia on 2011 ECH and was entirely psychological issue. Before that we conquered our students from the east in home and went to the WL finals for the first time since 2007, while Russia lost only from us in that World League. And in that world league we received very few aces from anyone, while this year our reception was the lowest I have seen. I don't think Placi has all the fault, he is an expert, but you can't fire the players for being unproffesional.

Quote from serdar

Final Four of Arkasspor two years ago was a quite success for Hoag with that average roster About Stoychev, I don't think he had contributed to Turkish volleyball at all. With that roster any Turkish coach could also win the Turkish title. Stoychev would show his class if he would manage to win CL. Halkbank had already booked his slot in final four as host, so Stoychev's only contribution was in semifinal. I am glad that he has left, it was not really logical to pay that much money for such a coach

I can understand the anger towards an overpaid star coach that fails to win "that one game" but CL final is always complex and Belogorie was very good. (Btw, their financial side for the last season was not worse than that of Halkbank - effectively, they had two squads of excellent players.) Secondly, we both remember how Arkas had "qualified" to that F4: one can't deny that their home game was "a problem" for CEV and a major scandal was avoided only by letting Novosibirsk host next F4. I don't think CEV could afford such a disaster in the CL final as the reputation of the tournament and the organization itself would be under threat. Thus, Stoychev had only a mild home refereeing on his side.

My point is that the whole idea of hiring a specialist to win one game sounds seriously wrong. The very ambitious Zenit Kazan hired Alekno back in 2008 and the CL was won only in 2012. I don't think that Zenit's budget and Alekno's wages are less than what Halkbank/Stoychev could boast. Where you may be right is that Stoychev looked quite a bit arrogant (at least to me), which is known to poison the whole atmosphere around the sport.

Powsoff, do you consider Alberto Guiliani an arrogant coach? Just checking to see if there is bias here.

Quote from raylight

You forget several important points:
1) Placi took the team prepared by Stoychev who send them to the Olympics on the first place. Their personal instructions what to do in each of the thousand possible gaming situations were still fresh. Despite that there was immediate decline in endurance / the games at the end of the olympic cycle/ and in serve quality and in 2013 our serve was the worst since I watch volleyball, e.g. since 1994.
2) Clubs and NT are different. Psychological factors don't play such role in clubs. With Stoychev the NT had the burden of expectations from the public, while with Placi nobody expected anything.
3) Bulgaria had relatively easy way to the semifinals in the olympics.
4) Bulgaria is a star team - Sokolov, Skrimov, Yosifov are pretty big players, Aleksiev too. Good enough to beat Italy ,Serbia and Poland and take bronzes and silvers.
5) You are just not following any data, are you? Teams with Stoychev don't produce errors, the same players make many more errors under other coaching. Teams with Stoychev always have extremely efficient first attack, even Bulgaria had, when psychology was not the factor, or teams like Argentina giving points to the hosts or Poland losing from Slovakia on puprose. The only really weak match we had was against Russia on 2011 ECH and was entirely psychological issue. Before that we conquered our students from the east in home and went to the WL finals for the first time since 2007, while Russia lost only from us in that World League. And in that world league we received very few aces from anyone, while this years our reception was the lowest I have seen. I don't thing Placi has all the fault, he is an expert, but you can't fire the players for being unproffesional.

Where you may be right is that the burden of expectations under Stoychev (=with Kaziyski, which is also important!) is much higher but otherwise I can't agree. The home win over Russia in WL qualification was a gift from Alekno, which the latter had admitted pretty publicly. That game had no value for Russia whatsoever but could have given a lifeline to Alekno's good friend so the choice was obvious. Dare I remind you the results (and the style) of the away games vs Russia in that cycle: this and this reflects the performance of Stoychev boys against a motivated and classy opponent. Just follow those data and count the errors. The point here is that if your team wins one game out of nine against a top team, this one game wouldn't make your team a top team. Psychology is always a factor, the coach needs to deal with this. At the same time, a native speaker is always better in that as one can't deliver a strong message in half-minute in a foreign tongue.

The big thing about London Olympics for Bulgaria was the way they were playing and not particular one element like serve or block. It is pretty ridiculous to explain this with the freshness of the Stoychev memories. They quietly beat the super-ambitious Poland and outclassed Germany in the quarters - a very different team from what we had a year before.

Sokolov, Skrimov, Yosifov - who are these people? Did they win anything in their life? I know Aleksiev, Todorov - good players but are they the world top, playing in Yugra?