Italy - Serie A1 2025/26

    Danesi had a good defensive game yesterday. Vero Volley slowed down Imoco - expecially Zhu - a lot thanks to her (and an outstanding performance by Fersino). She touched a huge amount of balls, which won't be showed on the stats unfortunately. Kurtagic's big night doesn't make Danesi's performance any less valuable IMHO.


    Too bad Egonu didn't perform at her standards. Her stats % don't look tragic, but she made so many mistakes (by big margin) expecially at clutch time.


    If Vero Volley can repeat this kind of performance, they can actually win the league, because Egonu won't miss another game so badly for sure. She was very consistent and composed all season long.

    Quote from fire_erik_sullivan

    Piva and Khalia both did their job (although Khalia got blocked too many times). Neither of them are going to Nervini Markova matches..

    Honestly - while watching the game - Lanier never gave me the impression she can be a real factor to win the league. Egonu made more errors, but it's not like she stepped up or something as a spiker. Her passing was so so as well. Egonu's game looked worse probably because her errors were HUGE ERRORS.

    Quote from VBdiamond

    Danesi had a good defensive game yesterday. Vero Volley slowed down Imoco - expecially Zhu - a lot thanks to her (and an outstanding performance by Fersino). She touched a huge amount of balls, which won't be showed on the stats unfortunately. Kurtagic's big night doesn't make Danesi's performance any less valuable IMHO.

    Obviously she played well defensively. but you aren't beating Conegliano with a black hole offensively in the middle.


    It puts more pressure on Piva/Lanier (even more so when Egonu isn't on her A+ game)


    Milano can't afford that when Gabi/Zhu are capable of playing at a much higher level than Piva/Lanier are

    IMHO Vero Volley missed a go-to pin hitter most of all.


    The black hole ended the game at 36%, while Egonu and Lanier had 40% and 41%. It's basically the same level of offensive performance. Not to mention the attack mistakes (Danesi 1, Egonu 9 and Lanier 6). :gone:

    Quote from Phoenix

    I still think they could try a different setter next season. Alternate with Bosio.

    Well, they had (and still have) Miner this season, but they left her rotting on the bench... I don't think she could've done so much worse in certain occasions compared to Bosio, who wasn't able to be a reliable game manager like she was supposed to be.

    Quote from VBdiamond

    IMHO Vero Volley missed a go-to pin hitter most of all.


    The black hole ended the game at 36%, while Egonu and Lanier had 40% and 41%. It's basically the same level of offensive performance. Not to mention the attack mistakes (Danesi 1, Egonu 9 and Lanier 6). :gone:

    You're missing the greater point. It's about the system they need to run in order to be successful without a top tier OH.


    Go back and watch Fahr against Danesi on the perfect passes yesterday.


    Conegliano always had four hands at the net against both pins because Danesi was always an afterthought on offense. Milano was never able to establish her as a threat in her three rotations. This makes Paola/Lanier/Piva's job much harder.


    On 23 perfect passes, Milano had *two* points with a one on one blocker... And Gabi still blocked Paola on one of them lol


    Yes part of that is a Bosio problem, but Danesi has never been a world beater offensively.


    Team offensive Stats in Danesi's rotations

    .228 efficiency, 39% attack,


    In Hena's

    .320 efficiency, 44% attack

    Of course a strong hitter in the middle makes the game easier for the pins. That's the basic of volleyball.


    My point is different.


    Haak Was blocked 5 times, but she was still good. Zhu was slowed down and didn't have her usual impact, but she didnt make a lot of mistakes. And Gabi played a good game too. All of them had their momentum. For Vero Volley it was Piva on her own and her stats would look much better if she wasn't overloaded OOS or with trash sets. When the OH2 is the go-to player, there is a big problem.


    It's not like Fahr and Chirichella were delivering a monster performance.

    The problem with Danesi is not just the offense, but it's the fact that Fahr and Chirichella are constantly ignoring her. They are not even consider her as a threat and they just run to the pins. That complicates the game a lot for Milano. When Fahr is in on the front row they are big gaps all the time at good receptions, because Hena and Danesi can not leave her without block.... This is the luxury that Milano simply have not.

    Just like Sylla, Orro, and Egonu, Conegliano reads Danesi’s game very easily. I honestly don’t think she has managed to be offensively productive against them even once — and when I say not once, I mean ever since she left Imoco. Against Conegliano, she is always off.

    Yesterday her overall game was good. Their problem was Egonu's clearly 100% injury. She was just started to score better.... The best player of the team, who's also the captain left the match and they just stopped beliving in victory. They had Imoco in their pockets and they just made every possible errors in the 4rth and the fifth set... I lost the count.... How many rallys and how many opportunies they have in the 4rth set to extend the lead that already had? Numerous... They were just so clumsy... That had nothing to do with Danesi. Her main problem is her awful defense. She can barely run, her reactions are very slow, and her technical setting skills are so poor that I honestly don’t think I’ve ever seen her set with her fingers. Anyway, those things don’t affect the game that much, and I don’t expect Danesi to do a lot offensively. If she plays like she did yesterday, I’m fine with that. She really slowed down numerous attacks in high ball situation and that was super valuable.

    Not entirely related to above conversation but I just have a feeling that we set the bar for OHs so low today. High level all around pins are rarity, several reasons for which i definitely can take that, then we have offensive and defensive differentiation, which we have to accept, but than we ended up with bunch of players that are somewhere (god knows where) on that spectrum, technicaly not up to the task to provide reception stability and significant defensful impact, while also physically uncapable to be efficient enough to make up for their or whole team reception/defense "system" flaws. It is kinda irritating

    Quote from VBdiamond

    IMHO Vero Volley missed a go-to pin hitter most of all.


    The black hole ended the game at 36%, while Egonu and Lanier had 40% and 41%. It's basically the same level of offensive performance. Not to mention the attack mistakes (Danesi 1, Egonu 9 and Lanier 6). :gone:

    that is not correct. Anything below %50 attack is bad for an MB since they in theory should have one blocker in front of them. So 36% is very bad for MB offense while 41% for OH is pretty decent. So their offensive levels aren't comparable at all

    I am getting bored now, because it kinda sounds like a way to hide Lanier was no factor. Kudos to her for not collapsing at passing, but her offensive game was so so. Definitely she shares responsabilities with Egonu and Danesi. And I go back to the first of your post and I don't think she did her job. And her body linguage on court is way more worrying than her numbers IMHO.

    Quote from VBdiamond

    I am getting bored now, because it kinda sounds like a way to hide Lanier was no factor. Kudos to her for not collapsing at passing, but her offensive game was so so. Definitely she shares responsabilities with Egonu and Danesi. And I go back to the first of your post and I don't think she did her job. And her body linguage on court is way more worrying than her numbers IMHO.

    if Plummer played the same game Lanier played you’d be praising her and I’m FAR from a Lanier stan. Avid is right Milano needed good Egonu to win. They got mostly enough from the rest of their team realistically speaking to their level especially from Kurtagic who had an absurd game

    Quote from serdar

    that is not correct. Anything below %50 attack is bad for an MB since they in theory should have one blocker in front of them. So 36% is very bad for MB offense while 41% for OH is pretty decent. So their offensive levels aren't comparable at all

    I guess Zehra is then afwul when she had 12 out 22 league games under 50%. :gone:

    Quote from Madden54

    if Plummer played the same game Lanier played you’d be praising her and I’m FAR from a Lanier stan. Avid is right Milano needed good Egonu to win. They got mostly enough from the rest of their team realistically speaking to their level especially from Kurtagic who had an absurd game

    Which is the very first thing I wrote. :gone:

    Also I praised Lanier for not collpasing at passing even when she was targeted. ||

    Quote from VBdiamond

    I guess Zehra is then afwul when she had 12 out 22 league games under 50%. :gone:

    Lol you must be really bored to go through that stats but yeah I would never compare a middle's attacking below %50 to an OH attacking with 41%, doesn't matter if she is Danesi or Zehra. It just doesn't make any sense.


    In zehra's case she started the season slowly with recovery from injuries and lately I'm sure her stats are better anyways

    Quote from serdar

    Lol you must be really bored to go through that stats but yeah I would never compare a middle's attacking below %50 to an OH attacking with 41%, doesn't matter if she is Danesi or Zehra. It just doesn't make any sense.


    In zehra's case she started the season slowly with recovery from injuries and lately I'm sure her stats are better anyways

    I checked her stats after the last game against Fener and noticed she played badly in almost all top games of the season, then I checked again earlier to write my comment.


    You can't compare middles and pins % because of the different volume of swings and other reasons. Anyway I was mostly ironic with my post about Zehra. :win:


    My point was Vero Volley missed something from Egonu, Danesi and Lanier, not just Egonu and Danesi.

    Quote from serdar

    that is not correct. Anything below %50 attack is bad for an MB since they in theory should have one blocker in front of them. So 36% is very bad for MB offense while 41% for OH is pretty decent. So their offensive levels aren't comparable at all

    I would say anything 45 and above is good for an MB and 40 and up is good for an OH. Probably because getting half of the kills right consistently always remains to be a task. Opps are 40 and up too but with the expectations that it's more than the OHs unless they got an extreme offensive workload.


    But 36% is ok for an OH depending on their defensive duties but is pretty bad for an MB indeed. I'm just overthinking-analyzing irrelevant data on this whole post but anyway :lol:

    Quote from Bogdan

    Not entirely related to above conversation but I just have a feeling that we set the bar for OHs so low today. High level all around pins are rarity, several reasons for which i definitely can take that, then we have offensive and defensive differentiation, which we have to accept, but than we ended up with bunch of players that are somewhere (god knows where) on that spectrum, technicaly not up to the task to provide reception stability and significant defensful impact, while also physically uncapable to be efficient enough to make up for their or whole team reception/defense "system" flaws. It is kinda irritating

    Which is why I find it difficult to see Tolok reverting/switching to OH and any coach agreeing especially when she's already a more capable OPP. Cambi is also not going to make it easier for her next season.