Turkey - Vodafone Sultanlar Ligi 2025-2026

    In my opinion, as an attacker Vargas has only ONE FLAW.... She does not know when and mostly how to tip properly... All her tips are easily defended and they are like 80% point for the opponent. I think that it's where all her unforced errors cam from. She often hits hard balls that's obvious that they can not be killed.

    Quote from Realista

    Is Markova the greatest pos. 4 spiker of all time? She might have the case.

    I’m not sure I’ve ever seen someone score so effectively from there. It’s almost unstoppable. Especially because you also have one of the greatest players in history on her side helping draw the block. It’s truly scary

    Quote from Bogdan

    It is definitely time to start this narrative. There still will be many people claiming some historic names, but i will vote for Markova any day.

    Me too. I've never seen anyone like her before and it's not only that. Generally her reception it's pretty good/solid and today she had the most succefull defenses after Ayca and Gulce... Also her block is SCARY.

    Quote from Bogdan

    It is definitely time to start this narrative. There still will be many people claiming some historic names, but i will vote for Markova any day.

    Yeah, there are obviously some names worthy of mentioning (Mireya, peak Artamonova, Zhu, or peak Glinka), so these are obviously decent shoutouts, but I've never seen anyone like this season's Markova. She's at +60% attack rate in the playoffs in the league, and at 55% attack rate in the Champions League, while being a 1st option offensively.


    Like ... how?

    Zhu Ting at the 2016 Olympics scored 22ppg on +50%/40% attack rate/attack efficiency - that was until Markova the best left wing spiker ever in my eyes. Now, obviously there's a difference in overall importance of the events, and OG 2016 is like a legendary carrying job (and Zhu was also a cornerstone of Vakifbank in her glory days as well) - but Markova this year may be even better in terms of pure level of pos. 4 attack.


    Peak Kim could be a more impactful player overall, and there's the whole group of all-round players from the modern era and names like Sun Yue, Sokolova, and so on, up to Gabi now, but I was strictly talking about the offense, and left wing attack more precisely. And there, Markova really may be the one.

    Quote from Realista

    Zhu Ting at the 2016 Olympics scored 22ppg on +50%/40% attack rate/attack efficiency - that was until Markova the best left wing spiker ever in my eyes. Now, obviously there's a difference in overall importance of the events, and OG 2016 is like a legendary carrying job (and Zhu was also a cornerstone of Vakifbank in her glory days as well) - but Markova this year may be even better in terms of pure level of pos. 4 attack.


    Peak Kim could be a more impactful player overall, and there's the whole group of all-round players from the modern era and names like Sun Yue, Sokolova, and so on, up to Gabi now, but I was strictly talking about the offense, and left wing attack more precisely. And there, Markova really may be the one.

    Zhu at her prime was the only player that manage to play at this level. I thought it again and I could say that they were at a similar level. Zhu was less impressive, but I think that she did almost no errors. Not that Markova is prone to errors but I think that Zhu was even less. When it comes to the other parts of the game, hence reception, defense, blocking and serving Marina is definetely better, but Zhu... As I said before she had the ability to do not give errors at any cost. At least this is what I remember. The Rio Olympics is an other matter. Zhu was almost fully coverved at the reception back then.

    Quote from volleySrb

    if we talk about attack, ykk is not even close

    Disagree. Peak YKK was as many here said very impactful for many years. And she had a greater range of variety in her shots and skills in general. As of now Marina still needs to win a CL too, to solidify herself, Kim did win CL with FB and had 2 League titles and 6 cups (Marina for now at 1 League and 2 cups) I won't mention OG MVP since Marina could do great with Russia but CEV and FIVB are being stupid


    With that said I usually don't like to compare legends with active players, one day I might say Markova was the best ever indeed but that is not today. Zhu and Mireya are also contenders indeed and there are actually many more.

    Quote from runnerupster

    Disagree. Peak YKK was as many here said very impactful for many years. And she had a greater range of variety in her shots and skills in general. As of now Marina still needs to win a CL too, to solidify herself, Kim did win CL with FB and had 2 League titles and 6 cups (Marina for now at 1 League and 2 cups) I won't mention OG MVP since Marina could do great with Russia but CEV and FIVB are being stupid


    With that said I usually don't like to compare legends with active players, one day I might say Markova was the best ever indeed but that is not today. Zhu and Mireya are also contenders indeed and there are actually many more.

    But we are talking about their abilities, not accomplishments.

    Quote from Bogdan

    But we are talking about their abilities, not accomplishments.

    I would keep my opinion because YKK was one of those generational talents that make volleyball incredibly smooth to watch, particularly in her prime, that's partly attributed to her complete game, court knowledge and high technical skills. Like a Federer of volleyball, many of us will keep mentioning her even if her accomplishments fade.


    Marina is still covered at times and that was so rare for Kim. In fact I remember her covering defense subs lol. Don't get me wrong Marina is definitely up there and she is the one, but I definitely see other arguments.


    The titles I only brought up to put things into perspective and imagine a roadmap for Marina and ways she could be solidified as "the greatest ever" in the future.

    Quote from Realista

    Zhu Ting at the 2016 Olympics scored 22ppg on +50%/40% attack rate/attack efficiency - that was until Markova the best left wing spiker ever in my eyes. Now, obviously there's a difference in overall importance of the events, and OG 2016 is like a legendary carrying job (and Zhu was also a cornerstone of Vakifbank in her glory days as well) - but Markova this year may be even better in terms of pure level of pos. 4 attack.


    Peak Kim could be a more impactful player overall, and there's the whole group of all-round players from the modern era and names like Sun Yue, Sokolova, and so on, up to Gabi now, but I was strictly talking about the offense, and left wing attack more precisely. And there, Markova really may be the one.

    Imo Markova has even surpassed the prime Zhu in Rio & VB days if we ONLY talk about the pure athletic ability as a pos 4 spiker, putting the achievements/accomplishments aside. And I’m expressing this view as a long time Zhu Ting fan. The prime Zhu was the best pos 4 spike in “modern volleyball” without a doubt before Markova appeared. With no disrespect to greats like Artamonova, KYK or Gamova who I think is a better pos 4 spiker than in pos 2 as Opp, these are all my favorite players as well but Zhu’s pure ability as a spiker is above them, considering the spike reach, the success rate, and even more importantly the efficient rate. Zhu rarely made error like Steven pointed out above and that’s what stood out.


    But the reason I’d still put Luis     as the “all time greatest” is because Luis was the only one who had even crazier jump ability than Markova. At just 1.75m tall but she could reach spike height similar to Markova, I’m still amazed by how she could hit those super tight set by jumping so high and hit over the blocks in my vague memory.


    Also the reason I mentioned “modern” volleyball” is because I know the game are just completely different back in the 90s to the current one. It’s just not that possible to compare. (To me modern volleyball is after the introduction of libero and after the “side-out scoring system” was replaced by the current “rally point system”)


    And even I agree to not to mention the accomplishment at this point of discussion, Markova also needs to carry her team to win at least a major tournament to justify the “all time greatest” position. Yes her stats and reach are insane, but we also witnessed that when she was without help as in the CL final 4 last year when KVR was unfortunately sick in the tournament, she couldn’t do much on her own and lost both matches.

    Quote from runnerupster

    I would keep my opinion because YKK was one of those generational talents that make volleyball incredibly smooth to watch, particularly in her prime, that's partly attributed to her complete game, court knowledge and high technical skills. Like a Federer of volleyball, many of us will keep mentioning her even if her accomplishments fade.


    Marina is still covered at times and that was so rare for Kim. In fact I remember her covering defense subs lol. Don't get me wrong Marina is definitely up there and she is the one, but I definitely see other arguments.


    The titles I only brought up to put things into perspective and imagine a roadmap for Marina and ways she could be solidified as "the greatest ever" in the future.

    But that's completely other topic 😂 Realista mentioned several times that it is about quality of their attack from position 4 only and so on i was talking only about that. I mean you can disagree even with that obviously, i dont mind as i'm not like 100% for Markova, it probably will depend on a day, or after i rewatch (i wont) Zhu games for example, but it is just odd to me that we cant stick to simple topic lines, like how on earth you can bring defense to this 😆 It is to early for Markova to even be on a long list when it comes to GOAT or whatever liftime discussion, where KYK will be solid option for example.

    Quote from Bogdan

    But that's completely other topic 😂 Realista mentioned several times that it is about quality of their attack from position 4 only and so on i was talking only about that. I mean you can disagree even with that obviously, i dont mind as i'm not like 100% for Markova, it probably will depend on a day, or after i rewatch (i wont) Zhu games for example, but it is just odd to me that we cant stick to simple topic lines, like how on earth you can bring defense to this 😆 It is to early for Markova to even be on a long list when it comes to GOAT or whatever liftime discussion, where KYK will be solid option for example.

    I argued for her variety in attacks in position 4 as well and court knowledge. Much like Zhu, KYK was also not quite error prone (and neither is Marina)


    I don't know why you feel the need to act snobby, but there are several narratives being spoken of right now (Steven for example spoke about overall skills first, so Idk what kind of diverging you see) and we can add more as well as we go on, this is what discussion boards are for, it's quite literally on-topic laughing_emoji

    The only question mark I have on Markova is that she started to play relatively late (24-25 years) at the highest level. And her game relies on athletic ability. So there’s a possibility that her prime could last shorter than we hoped for. Fingers crossed, that this won’t be the case 🤞.

    This game was a quick preview of Fener’s next year failures to come. They should have taken advantage of Vakif having a bad day but their roster planning is so messed up that every move they make to fix one problem just creates another hole somewhere else.

    Even thpugh Hande is playing poorly, they have to keep her on the court because they need Korneluk. If you bring Ana Cristina in then Asli gets exposed in blocking. Even with Hande the defence is already barely average and with Ana Cristina it turns into another circus. In the end they had to take Orro out. So if you have to rotate and cant use your overhyped blockbuster player in the most critical time of final series, what is the purpose of pouring all that money on her?


    And the worst part is they dont seem to learn anything from any of this. Next season they’ll again go without a reliable defensive oh, add another foreign MB and bring in an additional foreign libero just to make sure the coach gets completely handcuffed. And then they act surprised why no coach can make the best roster in the universe work. Having luxury of a Turkish opposite and consistently building such dysfunctional teams require really special dedication. If there was a guide at how not to build a volleyball team, they would be enough example to cover all wrongdoings.

    Quote from alde

    Even thpugh Hande is playing poorly, they have to keep her on the court because they need Korneluk. If you bring Ana Cristina in then Asli gets exposed in blocking. Even with Hande the defence is already barely average and with Ana Cristina it turns into another circus. In the end they had to take Orro out. So if you have to rotate and cant use your overhyped blockbuster player in the most critical time of final series, what is the purpose of pouring all that money on her?


    And the worst part is they dont seem to learn anything from any of this. Next season they’ll again go without a reliable defensive oh, add another foreign MB and bring in an additional foreign libero just to make sure the coach gets completely handcuffed. And then they act surprised why no coach can make the best roster in the universe work. Having luxury of a Turkish opposite and consistently building such dysfunctional teams require really special dedication. If there was a guide at how not to build a volleyball team, they would be enough example to cover all wrongdoings.

    Taking Hande out was a correct decision. She kept sending overpasses before she was benched, and AC scored after entering the court. Agree on the Orro part though.


    Next season they will have Jack, so they could play with Arina/Hande, Eda/Jack, Orro/Vargas + Brenda. But their biggest problem will still be the OH2. If Hande still plays like this (I’m 95% sure she will), they don’t have a solution for that.