With the recent concluded matches from the CEV/Champions League, below are my observations with Rio olympics in mind:
- Sokolova is a shadow from the player she was in 2012, it seems her attack suffered the most decline but that is understandable due to her age; she can still help in reception but not as solid as before; Shcherban can take her role as defensive OH
- Shlyakhovaya had a great performance during the CEV Finals matches, it seems she finally recovered her injury and looks to complete the 3 MB slots in Rio together with Zaryazkho and Fetisova; she is a good middle ground between the two in terms of offense/defense (thankfully no Lyubushkina who is a real liability in blocking!); Marichev would be stupid if Natsya doesn't get that 3rd MB slot
- Sasha Pasynkova's game has turned out for the worse both in reception and attack; but as evident in the Finals game, she is still a consistently good server and that may be her only saving grace to get a slot in Rio; Hodunova can take this role but to be honest, I don't see anything special in her and Sasha is arguably better both in serve and block
- Malykh had one of her best games in a long time, but sadly, even with her stellar performance during the second match of the Finals, she will never be starting OPP which leads me to my next point below
- The battle between Goncharova and Gamova as staring OPP returns! Natasha is having her best volleyball career right now, while Gamova is slowly showing her old form better than in 2014; with that said, I would still prefer Goncha as starting OPP (Gamova can be 2nd offensive OH next to Kosheleva in case the latter gets injured, and besides Gamova attacks better in Pos. 4 anyway)
- With Kosianenko underperforming, Startseva is my 1st setter by a long shot; in my opinion, no setter is better in blocking AND serving than her; Malykh has a better connection with Kosianenko anyway when the double sub is used and zero connection with Startseva lol
So my 12-player roster would look like this:
S: Startseva, Kosianenko
OPP: Goncharova, Malykh
MB: Fetisova, Zaryazkho, Shlyakhovaya
OH: Kosheleva, Shcherban, Gamova, Pasynkova
L: Malova
With the Koshe/Goncha duo providing the offensive firepower (along with Gamova), and with their block/defense slowly returning to ECH '13 form, Russia looks like a complete team to me; Shcherban will be the "X-factor" and when she delivers, Russia will be one of the teams to beat in Rio