Italy - Superlega 2023/24

    Quote from Paperoga

    I really like Eccheli and usually they serve well.

    I am not familiar with him at all, that’s why I asked. Thanks. If my memory serves me well, there has been a few matches where they were not serving well. Today, they were moment where they could snatch some lead or even sets, but they weren’t able to.

    Quote from Umu11

    I am not familiar with him at all, that’s why I asked. Thanks. If my memory serves me well, there has been a few matches where they were not serving well. Today, they were moment where they could snatch some lead or even sets, but they weren’t able to.

    Perugia is a tough opponent managing the game… Takahashi, Maar, Swarcz, Loeppky, Galassi in a good day are all strong servers, but their biggest strength is passing/defense and a great game manager in Cachopa

    Quote from Umu11

    have you been following the league? Would love to read your input for the performances so far.

    Yeah, I'm doing a brief review of every leg on one Polish forum (so basically to some degree I follow most games played), and it's too much time-consuming to do the same on Twitter/in the other places.


    It showed me that my message is too long, haha, so it will be in two parts. :D


    1. Trentino


    - fantastic season by Michieletto: you may wonder how long he can maintain such level because this is Juantorena- or Leon-esque effort in terms of overall impact: >50% in reception, crazy splits on attack (55/46% kill rate/attack efficiency, this is nuts) and great serving-blocking (>0,4pts/set in both categories), this is really super-human effort we all expected at one point to see from Michieletto considering he was true MVP at the ECH 2021 as a teenager,

    - Sbertoli improved to the level of 1st-tier of setters internationally: he's pretty versatile as a player (great serving, decent defense and blocking), but first and foremost his sets are more 'tight' and quicker (due to Kaziyski <=> Rychlicki change, to some degree),

    - Rychlicki is sensational - I've never seen him attacking from as quick sets as he does this year with Sbertoli (even with De Cecco) and his offensive splits (besides serve) are crazy good (55/42% kill rate/attack efficiency without checking out IIRC), the question is if he can maintain such level in the latter part of the season,

    - Laurenzano got better this season in comparison to last year (as expected), Podrascanin and Kozamernik are steady and decent, as always,

    - the only weaknesses are Lavia (who once again, at least so far, plays well below his NT-level in a club, but we'll see what he has to offer this Spring) and lack of rotation (and Michieletto with Lavia have had pretty intense NT-season, so we'll see if they can maintain such level).


    2. Perugia


    - Semeniuk got much better than last season, when he clearly underperformed - in terms of all-round impact, he's probably no 1 in this Perugia team, at least as long as Leon is sitting out due to injury,

    - Plotnitsky is pretty good - and got better recently - but complained about knee issues and him being obliged to play due to Leon's absence, so we'll see if he keeps up this level throughout a season, I've heard from very reliable Polish source that he'll stay in Perugia, so let's see who's gonna replace Leon,

    - Giannelli is fine - Flavio is fantastic, and Russo recently returned from this ankle injury from the European Championship, it's all good in this department,

    - the question marks are: rotation on opposite's position - I'd prefer Ben Tara, but Herrera got major playing time recently, also at the CWCH, and Colaci as a libero, he's way worse than Laurenzano, Scanferla or Balaso,

    - Lorenzetti is doing what he's asked for so far - he won Supercup and Club World Championship without Leon, in a league I don't think they'll drop below 2nd spot, so should have home-court advantage up until a final (if they make it this time), nothin to complain really, some inconsistency in their service game, but it shows their upside really (they're pretty subpar in their service game and yet pretty successful this season).


    3. Piacenza


    - Leal is a mess with these injuries: hard to criticize him, he's an old man, but his contract seems like a disaster if he can't return to his regular shape in a month or so (he's not even playing),

    - Lucarelli is spectacular, my 2nd-best player of the league so far behind Michieletto, recently against Catania he was subbed off due to pain in calf, but I've heard it's nothing serious,

    - Romano after NT-marathon from the summer had some injury issues at the start of the season and is so-so after a return, what costed them a spot in Coppa Italia Final Four (even though Gironi gave him a decent sub in QF match against Milano),

    - Recine is fantastic this year in a league, what's really interesting, considering he's been awful last year to the level of being dumped to the B squad by De Giorgi during NT season - Piacenza needed something extraordinary from back-up players to maintain this level with all injuries they (once again) have had, and Recine is a reason why they're pretty stable level-wise throughout this season (and choked a little bit against Milano in Italian Cup),

    - Scanferla is pretty great, he may be the best Italian libero right now,

    - Simon is nowhere near peak Simon (and Brizard doesn't help him with shaky setting to MBs), but he's still elite from broader perspective.


    4. Civitanova


    - there are some positives: Nikolov is pretty great, Chinenyeze improved his serving a bit, Anzani is healthy,

    - there are more minuses though: overall, they're in subpar shape (bad losses to Monza, Galati or Perugia recently); I've always criticized Lagumdzija for being very 'streaky' player, and once again he's unreliable in terms of week-by-weak performances (but to some degree it may be caused by overall shape of Civitanova, who knows); Zaytsev is pretty weak as an outside hitter and yet due to limits he has to play if Blengini wants to use Chinenyeze as a starter; Yant should be an alternative, but besides some flashes, he's really weak this year as well, to the level of Beppe Cormio, DS of Civitanova, publicly criticizing him for being focused on transfer rumors (there were gossips that Zenit Saint Petersburg wants to buy him out this season - Civitanova allegedly refused - and he'll join Zenit the next season from what we could grasp in the latest LGDS piece on transfer market),

    - overall - once again Blengini has to create some coaching magic (like past couple of seasons) in preparing his team for the decisive part of the season (they've missed on Coppa Italia Final Four for the 3rd time in a row, and there's no coincidence in that, they regularly struggle at this point of the season),

    - all the best to Balaso whose mother passed away last week,

    - I wouldn't cross them out fully, but I don't think this is a final material of a team.


    5. Milano


    - damn, it's messy here as well: Kaziyski hasn't been even remotely close to what he had showed before joining Milano in Trentino past two years; Dirlic and Catania look like misfires on the market, none of them does what some expected from them before the season, me including; Reggers is as talented as raw and unprepared for typical opposite-volume on serve and attack, but shows big promise; Ishikawa was injured at some point of the season and while Melgarejo is okay, he's and won't be great; Loser is fantastic this season (besides awful game against Zawiercie in CEV Cup; Porro has been good since he returned from thigh injury,

    - they made it to the Coppa Italia Final Four, but there are several question marks (Catania, Kaziyski, rotation on opposite's position) that make me pessimistic whether they can replicate last year's success - the game against Zawiercie (which I personally considered a favorite in this matchup) basically pointed out all the weaknesses of Milano's team and I don't think they're capable of a comeback tomorrow, we'll see.


    6. Monza


    - they're four points away from 4th spot, so nothing spectacular, but obviously their ranking doesn't correspond with how great season they have, including elimination of Civitanova in Coppa Italia QF: Maar is decent, Szwarc is surprisingly good, Takahashi was fantastic up until recently when he finally played some couple of subpar game, especially against Modena last weekend (he had very intense NT season as well), Cachopa and Galassi are good, Gaggini is short of being spectacular libero, but he's very good as well - Loeppky as a 'first back-up' on both OH and OPP positions is pretty great as well, all-round decent team,

    - in other words, they're good, the question is if they can actually improve their best historical results (once they were 4th and once 5th in a league), I doubt it, but we'll see, nothing to complain about this team's performance so far.

    7. Verona


    - pretty disappointing season: Dzavoronok only recently found a better shape and overall has been disappointing so far; Mozic (another player with intense NT season) has been playing with an injury, and he's good-not great; Amin is decent, but he's not a player that can lead a team in out of system situations, he's more of a system-player, but there's no system in Verona so far; setters and MBs are fine, but nothing spectacular, so all the attention you can have is focused on spikers, and spikers' shape - as above - isn't optimal; Keita had surgery on his shoulder and only recently returned to play (as an opposite), but is very mediocre so far; the biggest positive is Francesco Sani - the Italian-American who decided to go pro before graduating from college and was hired by Verona because he can play in Italy as a local (I think he's eligible to play for Italian NT as well): he's very young (2002) and very raw, but shows some promising touches both defensively and offensively, he may improve to some decent level in a near future,

    - I don't think it's impossible for Verona to be dangerous in the playoffs, but this is veeeeery subpar season so far with only slight positives and pretty bright minuses.


    8. Modena


    - lol, if some teams are 'regularly' messy - Modena is a definition of messiness: weird roster composition, many injuries, some crazy disparity between very old (Stankovic, Bruno, Juantorena) and very young players (the rest of the team) with nothing in-between; individually, there's no player in top of the league on his respective position, some (Sapozhkov, Brehme) are severely disappointing so far; Petrella (young 1st coach) was thrown under the bus and so far he hasn't escaped from this trap; they had some disaster losing streak, but recently defeated Monza, so maybe they'll figure it out in the latter part of the season;

    - I like Sanguinetti, Davyskiba and Federici - but at the same time I don't consider any of them a potential cornerstone to build around a future top team, so a lot to think about for DS Casadei and the rest of Modenese crew;

    - on the positive note, Juantorena is way past his prime, and yet he's still a good player, but again, he's 39, you won't build anything around him, so it's a wash to play him, really.


    9. Cisterna


    - once again, I like this team and believe there are some players that will receive a chance from much better teams than Cisterna itself: Faure is pretty decent as an opposite, Ramon - besides reception - also shows big potential offensively (his serve is great and he's well-composed technically in attack); obviously, they have their own limitations: Efe had decent past two games, but Peric and him were probably the weakest starting OHs in the whole league in the first round of the regular season; Nedeljkovic is so weak offensively and so great in blocking, Piccinelli is solid as well; they could've been dangerous if they had hired someone better on OH2 spot than Efe/Peric.


    10. Padova


    - my personal disappointment: not because their ranking is so below their potential (I had them before the season on 9th spot and they're 10th two points behind Cisterna, not a big deal), but I expected much more from several players: Garcia from Civitanova hasn't improved on attack even a bit, his serve is great but his attack is on point every fourth game, Desmet is pretty meh, Cardenas is a major flop - Cuttini (coach) should have given already much more playing time to the 19yo Luca Porro, who shows flashes of enormous potential, but for some reason he's afraid of doing so; Zenger is top libero once again, Falaschi is fine, Plak is solid and Davide Gardini improved to the level of being solid league player (I think he has upside for even more, but his defensive game is so far way too weak).


    11. Taranto


    - they're funny, actually: at the beginning of the season, they badly choked in two or three completely winnable games, so the coach (Mastrangelo) was fired after early losing streak - but they weren't any bad level-wise, so after Travica took over, they continued to collect points and after 6 tiebreaks lost in a row, they won some games and look pretty comfortable so far in a safe from relegation spot,

    - Kyle Russell and Lanza are mediocre, but have better days, Gutierrez is completely raw (2001), but shows a big promise (one of the few Cubans that can actually receive), Jendryk-Gargiulo duo on the middle is surprisingly good (I wouldn't be surprised to see Gargiulo to get a contract in one of the better, even top league teams, due to Italian citizenship), Trinidad and Rizzo are a wash, but they have no real weakness on their team (no Peric/Bayram level of a player), so they are able to be respectable Superlega-level team.


    12. Catania


    - hello messiness, my old friend: they fired coach (Waldo Kantor) before the season due to some internal conflicts, and then fired Douglas Cezar because they were last after a first round, but that wasn't his fault, they have the weakest roster and thus the weakest team, nothing to see here, it so difficult to build a team in May/June (when they bought rights to play in A1 from Vibo Valentia),

    - Orduna, Buchegger, Massari, Randazzo, Masulovic, Cavaccini - they're not bad per se, can win a set, but overall there's no player that can guarantee them points with some regularity and I don't think anything can change in this regard - they'll get relegated.

    Quote from side.out

    I guess Paperoga won't like what I'm about to say, but I do hope Civitanova-Milano match will be much closer compared to yesterday's game in Modena and, to some extent, the one currently going on in Piacenza.

    didn’t like it, but i am sure you’re happy now:rolll:

    Quote from side.out

    As a neutral, I am, no way I can't be! :rolll:


    It's a pity you guys didn't close that second set though, especially considering how the match went on from there.

    yeah… another 5 sets game that doesn’t help us at all. Perugia is going to obliterate us on Sat.

    Quote from Paperoga

    yeah… another 5 sets game that doesn’t help us at all. Perugia is going to obliterate us on Sat.

    A bit more of rest would have been great, some of the players really looked like they needed it. Perugia is a beast for everybody, but the match still has to be played. It's a steep climb but in win-or go home situation you're one of the teams I'm less willing to play against, so you'll never know.

    Cisterna 3-1 Piacenza :white:

    Efe bayram is chosen MVP back to back second time:obey:

    Tough luck for Monza, Takahashi's 3rd set ankle sprain (hopefully) affected their team play leading to a reverse sweep by Verona