Chinese NT 2018

    Congrats to this team for a well deserved medal. It was a long tournament and they fought until the end with Chinese Women's Volleyball Spirit. The core of this team is young and I hope they will bring more gold medals in the future.

    Quote from forzalube

    I think China this season should have played with this line up

    Xia Ding (S) / Li Yinginyg (O)
    Liu Xiaotong (OH) / Zhu Ting (OH)
    Yan Ni (MB) / Yuan Xinyue (MB)
    Wang Mengjie (L)

    The reception would be even more bad. Thats one of the reason why Gong is needed on court, for it to be stable.


    It'll be hard to find a young defensive OH because it seems like majority of the incoming youth attackers are non-receiving. My guess is that one of the more experienced veterans need to be looked at.

    I think Gong can play as an OH and Li Yingying plays as an OP if Lang Ping decides to play like European teams. It would be best for Li Yingying to work on her reception and start from there. Not sure if her club team will comply though since winning is their priority.

    Quote from jetmasters

    I think Gong can play as an OH and Li Yingying plays as an OP if Lang Ping decides to play like European teams. It would be best for Li Yingying to work on her reception and start from there. Not sure if her club team will comply though since winning is their priority.

    well..id like to see that : Gong as OH and LYY as OPP

    Quote from forzalube

    I think China this season should have played with this line up

    Xia Ding (S) / Li Yinginyg (O)
    Liu Xiaotong (OH) / Zhu Ting (OH)
    Yan Ni (MB) / Yuan Xinyue (MB)
    Wang Mengjie (L)

    I agree... I was surprised that Lang Ping never brought Xiaotong in the game against Italy especially in the 5th set.... But looking back there`s nothing China could have done as they simply could not stop Egonu.


    And if Lang Ping expects the OPP to pass then she should make sure they play as OH in club...like Li Yinginyg should play as OH this upcoming season.

    Lang Ping likes to use all players when possible so I think Liu Xiaotong got nothing left in the tank after playing so much matches in replacing Zhang Changning this season. China could still won against Italy but couldn't stop Sylla like Serbia did. Even if Egonu scored 50, still could have won if they stopped Sylla though.


    In regards to Li Yingying, she plays as a non receiving OH in her club so it is up to her club to allow her to receive or she would only receive playing for NT. That will slow her growth. That's why fans hope she can play as receiving OH this upcoming season.

    Some of the games looks really weird in WCH and VNL. I guess Lang Ping is trying to build a new system. She changed the playing style of Zhu to fit into the new system, so Zhu is not Zhu anymore.


    Seems Lang Ping chose 7 or 8 players who fit in system, and let them play together exclusively to learn the system and improve team work. Therefore, we only see 8 players played here, and the other 6 barely showed up on the court.


    Also, Lang Ping didn't rest the core players (Zhu tired and injured) even in some meaningless games, because she need to train them playing together all the time to improve the system efficiency. She try to win the games using her new system at all costs, but we know the results ...

    I don't think Lang Ping is worried about the fact that they didn't win gold. Her main goal was to reach the Final 6, which they did. Bronze is still something to be proud of, especially after all their hardwork.


    If I'm not mistaken, after the World Championship ended Lang Ping said to the media that the new cycle starts now. These next couple years that lead up to Tokyo is crucial. I expect some current players to be dropped, to look further into the veterans in the Chinese League, and to give potential youth players early exposure and experience in competition.

    Quote from bumpsetspike

    I don't think Lang Ping is worried about the fact that they didn't win gold. Her main goal was to reach the Final 6, which they did. Bronze is still something to be proud of, especially after all their hardwork.

    CHN is current world no.1 in ranking, won 2 golds and 1 WCH silver in the last three majors. So I am sure Lang Ping's goal was to win gold. Even silver is failure for this team. Very clearly SRB, ITA, CHN are three best teams in this WCH, other teams are far behind.


    I think Chinese players should be very sad for bronze. Most of them lost the best and only chance for WCH gold.

    Lang Ping trusted her new system more than Zhu, but failed. If she trusted Zhu more and let Zhu play her strength, CHN should have much better chances to win gold. Lang Ping was one of the best coach, but she made big mistakes in this WCH.

    Quote from Markz

    CHN is current world no.1 in ranking, won 2 golds and 1 WCH silver in the last three majors. So I am sure Lang Ping's goal was to win gold. Even silver is failure for this team. Very clearly SRB, ITA, CHN are three best teams in this WCH, other teams are far behind.


    I think Chinese players should be very sad for bronze. Most of them lost the best and only chance for WCH gold.


    Quote from Markz

    Lang Ping trusted her new system more than Zhu, but failed. If she trusted Zhu more and let Zhu play her strength, CHN should have much better chances to win gold. Lang Ping was one of the best coach, but she made big mistakes in this WCH.


    Hummmm... undoubtedly like any other players, the Chinese players also wished better outcome. But I don't see why they should be sad and they should see this as a "failure". The Italian team and the Serbian team are formidable opponents and they become so strong that they had beaten other favoris teams with ease (USA, Brazil, Russia and Turkey). So by playing the guilt games and the blame games, you're also indirectly insulting the gold and the silver medalists.

    Quote from Canter

    well..id like to see that : Gong as OH and LYY as OPP

    I doubt it. unless their clubs respective accept this setup. So far, the only reason explaining why Lang Ping didn't even give a try with LYY to play as OPP was probably because she made a deal with the Tianjin club. To put things in perspective, LYY is a superstar in Tianjin club and she's the only credible OH in this team. So If Lang Ping reprograms LYY to become an OPP player, this could be a mess when she goes back to play with her club. If I remember well, there is a similar situation with Zhang Changning as well few years ago.

    Quote from hoyhoy

    Hummmm... undoubtedly like any other players, the Chinese players also wished better outcome. But I don't see why they should be sad and they should see this as a "failure". The Italian team and the Serbian team are formidable opponents and they become so strong that they had beaten other favoris teams with ease (USA, Brazil, Russia and Turkey). So by playing the guilt games and the blame games, you're also indirectly insulting the gold and the silver medalists.

    Duh, I hope you can understand what I am saying. The world no.1 team's goal should be gold medal, bronze should be failure. The world no.15 team's goal should be get in top 6, should be proud of bronze. Is it too difficult for you to understand?


    Please tell me where I insulted gold, silver teams? I never blamed Chinese players, but I do believe Lang Ping made big mistakes in the WCH. Is this clear?

    Quote from Markz

    Duh, I hope you can understand what I am saying. The world no.1 team's goal should be gold medal, bronze should be failure. The world no.15 team's goal should be get in top 6, should be proud of bronze. Is it too difficult for you to understand?


    Please tell me where I insulted gold, silver teams? I never blamed Chinese players, but I do believe Lang Ping made big mistakes in the WCH. Is this clear?

    The world "no 1" is only a statistic. If I follow your logic, the US team, the Brazilian team and the Russian team should commit collective suicide for their "failure".


    Your statement suggests that if the Chinese team did not make those "big" mistakes they would win the gold medal. This implies that the gold and silver medalists did not deserve their medals because the Chinese team was supposedly much "stronger". But if you're honest with yourself, you would admit the fact that the Italian team and the Serbian team are also very strong and their team cohesion was much mature than the Chinese team.


    Of course if Hui and Wei were still with the the team, plus if LYY can play OPP and Zhang was not injured, I'm pretty sure the outcome would be very different. But given the new circonstance which the team has to deal with, I don't see why the Chinese players should see the bronze medal as a "failure".

    Quote from hoyhoy

    The world "no 1" is only a statistic. If I follow your logic, the US team, the Brazilian team and the Russian team should commit collective suicide for their "failure".


    Your statement suggests that if the Chinese team did not make those "big" mistakes they would win the gold medal. This implies that the gold and silver medalists did not deserve their medals because the Chinese team was supposedly much "stronger". But if you're honest with yourself, you would admit the fact that the Italian team and the Serbian team are also very strong and their team cohesion was much mature than the Chinese team.


    Of course if Hui and Wei were still with the the team, plus if LYY can play OPP and Zhang was not injured, I'm pretty sure the outcome would be very different. But given the new circonstance which the team has to deal with, I don't see why the Chinese players should see the bronze medal as a "failure".

    The world no.1 is not only a statistic, because CHN won 2 golds and 1 silver in last three majors before this WCH. I don't want to repeat this million times. They are the TRUE world no.1 by any means. Who said teams with bad results should commit collective suicide? It is your logic, not mine.


    Please don't put your words into my mouth. In sports, the winner always deserves the win and medal. But it doesn't mean that the winner is always better. The weaker person or team often can beat the stronger one by many reasons, such as luck or forms etc. Therefore, the ranking based on long term performance is more meaningful than short term performance.


    Both SRB and ITA are very strong, but I don't think their team cohesion was much mature than CHN. These three teams are the best in the world currently. They can beat each other on any days, whoever make fewer mistakes or have better forms will win.


    Chinese players should see the bronze medal as a "failure" because they won 2 gold and 1 silver in last four years. Particularly, Zhu won tons of gold and MVP in Europe recently. Zhu is still the same Zhu who still can win gold and MVP, but in Lang Ping's new system, Zhu is not the same Zhu anymore. I hope you can see the difference.

    No success in sport is due to luck! Don't such a sore loser. Both SRB and ITA were better than CHN and that's why they ended up in the final not because they were luckier.


    And I don't agree with the criticism about Lang Ping she has been a great coach with all the subs and the tactics during the game. On the other hand, other players in the team did not help Zhu at offense and it is obvious that teams can stop Zhu when she is the only one who can attack in a team. Both SRB and ITA performed better than CHN because there were Mihajloviç and Sylla to help Boskoviç and Egonu at offense whereas Zhu was alone. Unfortunately this doesn't work at this level. Either Gong or Zhang should step up their game and help Zhu or Yingying should learn receiving. Then CHN might beat SRB and ITA in OG

    Quote from serdar

    No success in sport is due to luck! Don't such a sore loser. Both SRB and ITA were better than CHN and that's why they ended up in the final not because they were luckier.

    Do you really believe there is no luck in sports? Did I say success in sports is due to luck? Did I say SRB and ITA were luckier? Don't try to put your words into my mouth, please stop it!

    Quote from Markz

    The world no.1 is not only a statistic, because CHN won 2 golds and 1 silver in last three majors before this WCH. I don't want to repeat this million times. They are the TRUE world no.1 by any means. Who said teams with bad results should commit collective suicide? It is your logic, not mine.


    Please don't put your words into my mouth. In sports, the winner always deserves the win and medal. But it doesn't mean that the winner is always better. The weaker person or team often can beat the stronger one by many reasons, such as luck or forms etc. Therefore, the ranking based on long term performance is more meaningful than short term performance.


    Both SRB and ITA are very strong, but I don't think their team cohesion was much mature than CHN. These three teams are the best in the world currently. They can beat each other on any days, whoever make fewer mistakes or have better forms will win.


    Chinese players should see the bronze medal as a "failure" because they won 2 gold and 1 silver in last four years. Particularly, Zhu won tons of gold and MVP in Europe recently. Zhu is still the same Zhu who still can win gold and MVP, but in Lang Ping's new system, Zhu is not the same Zhu anymore. I hope you can see the difference.

    There are few things I do agree or I partially agree with you.

    - I agree that there are many uncontrolled factors such luck; form; injury and etc can influence the outcome of a tournament.

    - I partially agree with you that Zhu Ting is not the Zhu anymore. There are multiple factors why Zhu Ting is "not" the Zhu anymore. But It's unfair and it's inaccurate to blame only on Lang Ping’s “new” system.


    Those things I disagree with you

    - Team cohesion:

    The ITA and SRB teams are both like a well-oiled machine and their player's connections are almost perfect. As for the Chinese team in this tournament, they have only 4 reliable and predictable players (Zhu, Yuan, Yan and Ding). The other players are either their skills or performance are limited or they have lot of question marks because they were newcomers or they just came back from an injury. And yes, the ITA and the SRB teams had better team cohesion than the Chinese team in this tournament. Building the team cohesion needs times and lots of trials and errors. But given the circumstance which Lang Ping has to deal with, I think she did an excellent job.


    - The definition of failure:

    From my perspective, we can define “failure” only base on factors that we can control or on things we know in advance. If players underperform or didn’t do what they should do or a coach took lots of silly decisions, then yes I agree with you that the bronze medal is a “failure”. But in this tournament, tell me which Chinese players were underperformed or they didn’t do what they should do? The only player you can probably “blame” for the so-called “failure” was Zhang. But she just came back from an injury and from a surgery. So you can’t expect her to perform as she was in RIO2016 overnight. As for Lang Ping, it’s easy for us to play expert afterward with our assumptions. But given the great number of unknown factors she had to deal with during this tournament, I think she did an excellent job.


    There are also many positive things the Chinese team had shown during this tournament. What impress me the most are firstly, I was pleasantly surprised how LYY can handle so well the pressure even though this teenager has just a little international competition exposure. Secondly, I had lots of admiration for Yan Ni. Because she just dispelled the myth of “old” Chinese players with her outstanding performance. Basically, these two players just set a new standard in the Chinese NT.