Turkey - Vodafone Sultanlar Ligi 2023-2024

    Quote from MTS

    where do you rank Hande in current OH pool?


    when I look OHs that have strong defensive skills, ı think there is a level just below Gabi and Kelsey. With Hande's current form she is one of the best in this level.


    There may be people who will say that Hande has consistency problem, but every player at that level has this problem. The reason why I see Hande as one of the best at that level is that she has affected the results of many high-level sets or sometimes matches in the last 8-9 months.

    I think Gabi and Kelsey has a different level above all defensive OHs right now (similar to Castillo and de Gennaro being a level above all other good liberos) besides these two, it is hard to make a precise ranking but I think both hande and İlkin are in the pool of best defensive outside hitters, who can also score a lot. There are actually not many defensive OHs playing at high level. Most of the good OHs in big clubs are big attackers with reception liability

    Quote from serdar

    I think Gabi and Kelsey has a different level above all defensive OHs right now (similar to Castillo and de Gennaro being a level above all other good liberos) besides these two, it is hard to make a precise ranking but I think both hande and İlkin are in the pool of best defensive outside hitters, who can also score a lot. There are actually not many defensive OHs playing at high level. Most of the good OHs in big clubs are big attackers with reception liability

    I think normally kelsey is not that that unctouchable but she is having the best season of her career.

    Quote from MTS

    I think normally kelsey is not that that unctouchable but she is having the best season of her career.

    I mean as a receiver she is even better than Gabi, I dare to say that she is better than a lot of top liberos. And offensively yes, this season has been her breakthrough year. I put her next to Gabi just because of this season's performance.


    Who else? Maybe bosetti whose attacking performance is not comparable, or Cazaute but she recently become a starter in her club so it is too early to make bold statements.

    Quote from Cofi

    Like Boskovic is non existent threat when she is back row lol.. this guy :lol::gone:

    I know you are blind by your princess but no blocker will leave an OH1 open while Boskovic in the backrow. She is good but let's be reasonable, which I know is a struggle for you guys when it comes to Boskovic

    Quote from serdar

    Turkey has beaten down Serbia very recently at gold medal game and Turkish NT is literally best team in the world right now, why would I care about previous defeats?🥰


    And what you struggle to see is that Serbian users' obsession to come up with stupid excuses and putting the blame on other players everytime Boskovic underperforms. This is what puts me and some other users off.


    I don't hate Boskovic (actually I liked her until recent years when she started to have that diva attitude with rolling her eyes towards her teammates and start to walk up to referees with anger etc ). I just find other top opps better than her and it doesn't make me a 'hater'. I just call her out whenever she underperforms because I simply don't care about her untouchable status that Serbian crew here try to enforce in this forum🤷

    beaten down? LOL it was 15-13 in the 5th set with Serbia down a starter and playing 2 players who had the flu Turkey won yes but beaten down is an INSANE thing to say 😭😭

    Quote from MTS

    where do you rank Hande in current OH pool?


    when I look OHs that have strong defensive skills, ı think there is a level just below Gabi and Kelsey. With Hande's current form she is one of the best in this level.


    There may be people who will say that Hande has consistency problem, but every player at that level has this problem. The reason why I see Hande as one of the best at that level is that she has affected the results of many high-level sets or sometimes matches in the last 8-9 months.

    This is one of her better season, but she has similar problem as Busa for example which is big unconsitency in attack unlike Gabi and Kelsey (They do have some bad games but it’s 1 in 10)

    There aren’t many defensive OHs who can constantly perform good in attack anyways, that’s why they are so valuable to top teams nowadays.


    I would put her at level just below Gabi and Kelsey in terms of defense, but she is also much more inconsistent when it comes to passing compared to then them..

    She also has harder time covering someone on reception compared to them and also compared to Busa and Bosetti.

    Her highs are high but her lows are rly low.
    I think she didn’t live up to expectations people had for her.

    Still I was never not a fan of her in Ecza, but she is too inconsistent to build team around having her as absolute starter and having no sub when she needs to be benched. She is local and valuable but they need another OH with defensive skills for bench, which they won’t have next season.

    Her attacking performance wouldn’t be a big deal anyways if Ecza had real offenive OH next to her which they don’t, hopefully Plummer would fit well next season.


    I would take Hande/Ilkin duo for Turkish NT though, Tugba, Derya and Saliha aren’t it and I’m not even a fan of Ebrar as OH.

    Quote from Madden54

    beaten down? LOL it was 15-13 in the 5th set with Serbia down a starter and playing 2 players who had the flu Turkey won yes but beaten down is an INSANE thing to say 😭😭

    Who do you mean Serbia's starter down?


    I take it back, yes it wasn't really a beat down, I just wanted use my bragging rights since joana brought it up 😂

    Uzelac was sick and unavailable and she was the starter for the big matches she was available for that tournament

    Quote from serdar

    Who do you mean Serbia's starter down?


    I take it back, yes it wasn't really a beat down, I just wanted use my bragging rights since joana brought it up 😂

    Quote from Madden54

    Uzelac was sick and unavailable and she was the starter for the big matches she was available for that tournament

    She wasn't THE starter. She was getting playing time but I don't think she was the solid starter. I remember she started at quarter finals and replaced by lozo after she played badly. And then busa&lozo were starters at semis too

    Quote from serdar

    She wasn't THE starter. She was getting playing time but I don't think she was the solid starter. I remember she started at quarter finals and replaced by lozo after she played badly. And then busa&lozo were starters at semis too

    She was planned starter from before ECH, Uzelac/Busa Jegdic were training together on reception line on preparations and they started most games, even against Poland in group stage which was really important game.


    She will likely be starter this summer, she is much much better in reception now compared to last summer

    Quote from serdar

    I just call her out whenever she underperforms because I simply don't care about her untouchable status that Serbian crew here try to enforce in this forum🤷

    This for me too! For sure. And I have this with every player, I remember when some people here used to say you can only have a terrible attitude if you are among the best and no one can say anything in that case. Which was always an off-putting thing to me, I guess I just don't have this classist mentality that is very normal to others but it is what it is.


    No one to me is exempt from constructive criticism.

    Quote from Altinli

    This for me too! For sure. And I have this with every player, I remember when some people here used to say you can only have a terrible attitude if you are among the best and no one can say anything in that case. Which was always an off-putting thing to me, I guess I just don't have this classist mentality that is very normal to others but it is what it is.


    No one to me is exempt from constructive criticism.

    She was madden54 saying it about Ebrar, she can't behave the way she does, just because she didn't win anything. I guess after last summer, she is entitled to do whatever she wants with that logic 😂

    Yes.

    Bošković plays well, but Eczacibasi loses: what a LOSER she is, she can't even win the match on her own!

    Bošković plays well, someone ele plays well, Eczacibasi wins: what a LOSER she is, she needs Hande/Voronkova/whoever to win the match!


    And absolutely, saying she has a toxic personality and that she was happy to win the Club WCh because she got sponsorship money and not because she cares about her team is totally "constructive criticism".


    Also, I don't think ANYONE, Serbian memebers included, claimed she played well in the last year's final series.

    Quote from MTS

    where do you rank Hande in current OH pool?


    when I look OHs that have strong defensive skills, ı think there is a level just below Gabi and Kelsey. With Hande's current form she is one of the best in this level.


    There may be people who will say that Hande has consistency problem, but every player at that level has this problem. The reason why I see Hande as one of the best at that level is that she has affected the results of many high-level sets or sometimes matches in the last 8-9 months.

    Across Turkish and Italian league, the top OHs are Gabi and Kelsey - no one else is at their current level as a holistic OH player.. They regularly receive at 60-80%, score >15 points and are reliable at key clutch moments.


    In the OH bucket behind them are Zhu, Arina, Plummer… Plummer has improved substantially in reception, otherwise, I would put her even a level lower. Arina has completely stepped up for Fener, taking on a huge load with Vargas out for the first half of the season and still not back to her best form.


    One level lower, I would include Hande, Ilkin, Cazaute (only if she continues to play as she has the last matches), Herbots, Skinner. These are all elite, reliable and consistent players who contribute meaningfully, and in some matches are stars, but are not consistently and regularly crucial factors for a win.

    Quote from Rhaemon

    people are actually debating that Hande is somewhere along the level of Kelsey and Gabi?

    🤣🤣🤣🤣

    Really.. hahahahahahahahahahahaha.

    She wouldn't be a starter in big clubs if she wasn't a local for a big Turkish team.

    Dont you understand what you read?🤦 Everyone literally said she is below level of these two🙄

    Why are you putting words in my mouth, I didn't say she has a toxic personality. I just said she has diva attitude. Maybe you are referring to someone else, but people rarely dare to criticize her in this forum anyways.


    By the way, yes people claimed that she played well last season and blamed everyone else in the team: setters, simge, trainer, outsides etc, basically everyone but her🤦

    Quote from QuickOutside

    Across Turkish and Italian league, the top OHs are Gabi and Kelsey - no one else is at their current level as a holistic OH player.. They regularly receive at 60-80%, score >15 points and are reliable at key clutch moments.


    In the OH bucket behind them are Zhu, Arina, Plummer… Plummer has improved substantially in reception, otherwise, I would put her even a level lower. Arina has completely stepped up for Fener, taking on a huge load with Vargas out for the first half of the season and still not back to her best form.


    One level lower, I would include Hande, Ilkin, Cazaute (only if she continues to play as she has the last matches), Herbots, Skinner. These are all elite, reliable and consistent players who contribute meaningfully, and in some matches are stars, but are not consistently and regularly crucial factors for a win.

    What do you think about ishikawa? I know she has a lot to prove yet but I think she is very solid at reception and attacking well despite her short height

    Does anyone knows what happened with Anthy? Saw a post on IG but can’t translate