Posts by Realista

What's up?

Okay, so I was making a review of young players playing in respective leagues and a while ago came to Brazilian league. If I miss someone, obviously I'd be glad for a feedback, that's why I'm typing this post, maybe there's a guy I should take a look on.

Setters: I don't see anyone worth mentioning, at least in terms of those playing regularly

Opposites: Darlan plays okay, Felipe has made a progress, I like Paulo Vinicios on subs, these young guys (Breno, Sabino) got their chances, but it's too early
OHs: Maicon plays regularly, but his technique is, well, not good, lol; Arthur doesn't get too much of playing time in Minas, the most he played in important matches was during CWCH, 52 spikes only so far;

MBs: there's no Leo from what I've seen, but I like depth here: Thierry, Kelvi, Pietro Santos, Geovane, nothing spectacular, but at least solid in terms of depth

Liberos: ???

There are also Estrada and Rodriguez from Cuba on OH and OPP positions, respectively, and Goide, if we consider 25yo as a young player.

Does Samuel play in some 2nd division team simultaneously? Cause I see him on Minas game roster, but he hasn't played yet, and in the summer he was the best player of 03/04 junior team at the Panamerican Cup from what I remember.

Quote from Umu11

I am not familiar with Rousseaux, do you think he will help Modena?

Naah, he's just a roster filler, although I don't know what's a health status of Pope these days.

I am not into these useless comparisons, so I'll just say that Egonu was playing on stratospheric level in this 20/21 season, I remember that I have checked out statistical database of Italian/Russian/Turkish leagues for those seasons that are available - and from purely statistical level (not saying it's determining of being better or worse, these are just stats), no one was remotely close in terms of share of attacks/spike percentage to this ridiculous efficiency that she's had that year. Since then, she's still one of the best, has had flashes of being THIS Egonu (last CL final for instance), but in summary she's definitely not at that level, even when she got ECH MVP etc. She was at 5.8 pts/set and 59% kill ratio in 20/21 Serie A season (this 59% kill ratio is like wtf), 6.1pts/set and 51% kill ratio in 21/22, and is at 6.3 pts/set and 49% kill ratio in Turkish league this season. It's still pretty elite, but she definitely has set the bar on a level people expect from her on regular basis, but maybe it's unsustainable? We'll see.

Just keep in mind they're just regular people after all, and volleyball is a team sport, those individual labels aren't THAT important, it may be helpful not to overestimate such comparisons. I guess perhaps that's the reason people want to meddle with rumors like ''Egonu is leaving Vakif''.

Quote from Paperoga

Ibrahim Lawani to Taranto

This is this year's move, not for the next season.

Quote from Realista

It seems likely according to the reliable Polish source.

The other source says he'll go to Italy, but to Perugia.

Quote from Volleypassionate

Tell me when he said that a deal was done and then it did not

I know one Polish guy who regarding male transfers was purposely giving him wrong infos just to make fun of him after he published them, lol. It was a big joke on one Polish forum a year ago.

You can't underestimate his info since it's rare in general to have any public insider in volleyball world, but you have to take maaany of his articles with grain of salt.

Quote from Paperoga

Ben Tara at Trento?

It seems likely according to the reliable Polish source.

Quote from Genius of the Sky

Any rumors if Christenson and Deroo might stay?

Both will stay.

Unofficially confirmed:

Huber to Trentino

Boyer to Resovia

Kłos to Resovia

Butryn to Skra

Lipiński to Skra

The most reliable source regarding Plusliga https://twitter.com/arteem_05

Rumors:

Bieniek to Jastrzębski/China

Lavia to Piacenza??? With Lisinac???

Dirlic to Trentino???

Modena negotiating with Davyskiba, potential Ngapeth's farewell???

Catania to Verona???

Atanasijevic in italy???

Federici to Modena

Gaggini to Monza

Sapozhkov another option for Trentino???

Lorenzetti won't stay in Trentino as a coach, Soli is a main candidate for replacement.

But Lavia has valid contract with Trentino and it is said he's likely to stay as well.

Yeah, this is what I meant in the other thread about Milano in general: they started to play on their expected level like two weeks ago and immediately this general overview, at least for now, of this team looks completely different: Mergarejo was killing it today, Loser has started to play on his regular level, Ishikawa is great and even Patry was solid. I wonder how long it will last, because Modena or Civitanova would be winnable matchups in the playoffs tbh.

Quote from tomen

As the audience watching Chinese League, I just said, he is just worse than healthy Zhang Jing-yin.

Of course, I am Chinese.

However, if you saw the matches, you would have the same mind.

Yeah, he wasn't any great in China, but it's not like you're playing in China for anything other than money and shorter season (at least in a male league). It may be unprofessional, maybe he had other issues, but Bednorz is clearly way better (seasons in Bełchatów, Modena, the second one in Kazań) than what he showed in Shanghai, that's why people have high expectations, on normal basis Zaksa wouldn't be able to afford him, but he has already gotten his paycheck, so he can play for some trophies (and NT spot) now.

Aaaaaand director of Civitanova said that they want to renew De Cecco and have already had positive meetings about that.

1. Paperoga I don't know if they're correct, but there are rumors in Poland about Atanasijevic joining Milan despite Patry having a valid contract (I guess he'd leave), it would be an exchange of one overrated player (in club volleyball) for another since Atanasijevic is waaaay past his prime for a while. Porro, Patry, Vitelli, Piano, Loser, Mergarejo have in theory valid contracts, if Milano wants to make a progress, they have to sign someone much better than Ebadipour to play alongside Yuki in the first place. You may wonder what are the top names they can theoretically acquire. The second step is to get rid off Patry like KVB already said.

2. About Volkov, one may wonder if that was "I wish to play one day in Italy" meaning something, or meaning completely nothing as most players theoretically would like to play in the most marketed and accessible for fans league in the world. But it's not something I'd consider as binding as for now, it was like a sentence on a question about his dreams thrown throughout a regular interview.

3. KVB - well, this is tricky, I referred to these Italian guys not as upcoming world-class setters, but just as an example of serious depth that they (can) have. Italy from 97/98 to 05/06 played at least in ECH/WCH finals on either/both U19 or U21 level in every generation (and have Giannelli from 95/96 generation), this 07/08 team looks promising as well, so obviously they have great depth on every position but MB. Boninfante is more hyped than I like him personally, but he's decent regardless, I liked Fanizza and the third Porro (especially) as well from what I've seen. I like Thelle and Dvorak from NCAA (it's a reach tho), Abaev from Novosibirsk (he's already 24, so a bit out of equation, but definitely world-class potential), obviously Porro, Paes (2002) is solid early on, Chaboissaint (2003) plays in one of the best French teams already (need to watch him more since he's a newbie, maybe he improved drastically since the last time I saw him), younger Nikolov from Levski will be great (2006, already playing as a starter in Bulgarian highest division, great size and versatility), I liked Kirillov (2003) from Russia as well, same with Iranian setter (don't remember his name), at last ECH U20 Slovenian Najdic (2006) looked very promising, the same Belgian setter from 2005, Kubicki (2003) from Poland is the biggest talent in our country since Janusz. And I liked Czech's setter from 2003, but he's a backup in local league, so that's not too promising. With Russia not playing in international competitions, maybe there's someone that I should've been familiar with. Porro swept almost all individual accolades at the junior level and already plays in very respectable team, so alongside Abaev he's by far the closest to this highest level. On average, the level of setting gets better and better as the game itself gets faster and faster, at the London Olympics in medal-contending team we had Suxho, Żygadło, Bratoev or Travica, and I don't think nowadays it would've been possible to play in such style they all represented (at least not in +- 50% of top teams), and it was like a decade from now. In terms of individual star quality, you may wonder who'll join Giannelli, Christenson or Brizard in the next few years after Paris Olympics (I guess De Cecco, Toniutti and Bruno will be done with international vball).

4. serdar - yeah, I liked Bostan at ECH U22, these were close to my hometown, so I've already seen him live once - I think I've already said somewhere before the season it sucks he'll be a backup of Marouf and unfortunately it did materialize so far.

Quote from KVB

He is a good setter at such young age. Definitely not one of the elite setters yet but being one of the very rare young & decent Italian setters gives him a big advantage to have a contract from the top teams, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he will be in Lube’s jersey in the next season or two.

Italy has lot of young, up and coming setters (Boninfante from '04, the youngest Porro from '07 looks decent as well, there are still Giannelli and Sbertoli, Fanizza and Bonacchi from 2004 look promising, Sperotto was great on junior level and looks fine in A2, so maybe he'll develop into something interesting, I like Selleri from 2005 generation), but yeah:

1) Porro is basically the only setter from 2001-02 generation actually playing as a starter in either Italy, Poland, Brazil, Russia and Turkey, at least in some respectable teams, in France there's Kylian Paes, but he was clearly outplayed by Porro at the ECH U22, one 2003 kid (I don't know him, didn't look any special at junior event last fall), and that's it.

2) he'll be 22 on October, in his age Bruno was considered a nepo baby (lol), Janusz was a backup until he was 24 and got a chance to play in top Polish team/Polish NT when he was 27/28, Zagumny was basically considered a wasted talent in PL until Lozano came to Poland in 2005 (and Zagumny was already 28 at that time), William played in mediocre Brazilian teams and in Argentina until he was 31/32yo, De Cecco in his age played in A2 and in some weak Russian team, Toniutti played in Ravenna when he was 25 or 26, Brizard was so-so in his first season in Poland and he was 24.

Not saying he'll be a player like some of those above, but he has like 15 years of career ahead, plenty of time to further develop, lol.

President of Milano confirmed that Porro has a contract for the next season and they want to sign a renewal further. That doesn't mean he won't be bought out, but it's kind of obvious, Milano needs NT players if they want to advance one day to the semis, so it'd be smart.

Ishikawa is pretty good this year, I was talking about the last season, when he was at 40% kill rate for like half of the season. Melgarejo plays really well past couple of weeks as well when he actually got a chance as a clear starter without this improvising three-OHs system. And Ebadipour was pretty bad in Poland for like half of the season (and very mediocre before), so it's not to surprising he's awful here, he played basically the same level in the Plusliga's playoffs last season. And the link of Porro with OHs is his biggest asset (Jaeschke had last year his career-best season), so this is not something I'd analyze. Loser and Patry are the surprises here, but Porro connection with Vitelli is strong, the same with Chinenyeze last year. I have no idea what the hell is happening with Patry second season in a row though.

The point is if basically all the players are inconsistent in longer period of time (even of a status of Loser or Patry, then it's wishful thinking to expect from by far the youngest player at the most difficult position to be consistent. And this is on coaching and Piazza has been aware of that - that's why he made this public self-bashing after a loss against Monza. You are right that with world-class setter Milano would've been stronger (Porro isn't there yet), but he's just better than you suggest, actually when Milano is clicking he's very good - and I don't think cause-effect relation works the way you suggest here, volleyball is very circumstantial game after all and it's always more about synergy than monocausal inference. And you are right that Milano has a team strong enough to compete for top4 (some 5-6th place with upset potential), but I'm pretty sure it's on Piazza who doesn't exploit this potential for 100%. That's why he had this interview when he basically said his team needs something different than he can give and if that's continue, then they won't finish the season together (basically suggesting he'll resign/get fired). Luckily, they crushed Civitanova in Coppa with all-round great performance. But nevermind, you may move this discussion into Superlega topic if you want to continue about Milano themselves, it's my fav Italian team past two years, that's why I've decided to elaborate.

It would be smart move for Civitanova if they want to continue rejuvenation of their team since basically there's no other that much acclaimed young setter on international youth level with already big pro experience right now (esp considering he's Italian) - but I don't think it will happen and they'll wait a year rather than buy out valid Porro's contract in Milano RIGHT NOW and not re-sign De Cecco for a year, considering the latter won't leave Italy, so there's no rivalry for him at this point on a market. Brizard will renew his contract with Piacenza, so with Sbertoli, Giannelli, Bruno, Cachopa, Giannelli having contracts for the next season, only Verona theoretically can fight for him, and still they have Spirito and at least for now they haven't had a budget big enough to sign such players. I'd bet the next year Porro will get a contract in a top team (Bruno will be 38 and De Cecco 36, not a disaster, but not an asset neither if you plan to build your team for longer than a year or two).

Porro will be great in a near future, but Milano is messy: Ishikawa played like ... well, bad for half of the last season (had some health issues), Ebadipour is a ghost, Patry is awful for the past two years, Loser had some health issues as well and until recently was coasting with Vitelli outplaying him - it's hard to shine as a setter within such environment. Piazza like two weeks ago was publicly complaining that his methods doesn't work and his team needs something different than his coaching, lol, but they defeated Civitanova and everything got fine surprisingly. Milano still has had pretty potent team in this period, so when they'd clicked (like the last year when Ishikawa got back to his normal shape) they look like a decent team and results are fine (the same this season when Ebadipour got finally benched), and Porro immediately (like in a game against Civitanova in Cup) was thriving. Perhaps that's the reason this whole rumor started, Milano and Porro kicked out Civitanova b2b in Italia Cup in the past two seasons.

So it depends on which path Civitanova will choose on a market, and that depends on their financial situation: there are rumors they have verbal agreement with Bovolenta (he's great on A2 level, especially for his age, MVP of the last ECH U20), if they don't have budget big enough to compete with Perugia/Piacenza, then multi-year deals with these most talented Italian youngsters make lot of sense.

Quote from Umu11

Bednorz needs to play for a team like ZAKSA because he has made stupid club choices for a few seasons now, which cost him his top player status and NT spot.

Not actually, the only time Bednorz was in a squad of Polish NT at the target event was ... back in 2016, the only time he made any impact was with Polish NT was with B squad at the VNL finals in 2019, so it's not like he had at any time NT spot. And it's not like going to Zenit was a bad idea either, had great 2nd season here, but came to the national team season not healthy and out of shape, so was easily outplayed by Fornal and Kwolek.

He doesn't look good at all in China, so first and foremost going to normal league even for couple of months can get him back on track - that being said, with Śliwka, Semeniuk, Fornal, Leon and Kwolek, Gierżot playing amazingly in Plusliga this season and Szalpuk restoring his career, Bednorz might as well be a 7-8 option in the summer. If Grbic goes with four MBs like this year, I don't see any non-injury related chances for Bednorz actually to make it to the 14.

But it's still decent move for him as well as for Zaksa, nice things may happen based on that if it's get confirmed eventually, although it's comical that such signings are possible on regular basis in volleyball. He (and other ''Chinese'' players) will basically play two seasons in one.

Alekno may be washed-up tho, didn't make it out of the group stage at the Olympics with Iran, had bad couple of seasons in Zenit Kazan as well since Leon left with no success.

I know the whole context of local coaches and this necessity of hiring foreign coach in order to make further progress for Turkish Men's NT, but if TVF has to invest that much (because Alekno is expensive I suppose), I wonder if he's a correct name.

Alekno said it's just preliminary talk, not a specific proposal.

Quote from Umu11

It felt the same last year, I don’t feel like there is an important tournament going on right now. No, not because of time difference. No marketing or anything. In addition to that that camera angle from the hall is just bad.

Well, considering that one of the four best leagues (Russian Superleague) can't participate, the second one (Polish Plusliga) de facto can't participate as well due to schedule conflict - it's only Italian-Brazilian competition for 8921 time organized in the same location, you can't get more boring than that. Organize this event in Italy like it was rumored and we would get something new, better hall to follow the game most importantly, Poles would participate as well I think etc. But honestly I don't think this is a goal for FIVB considering that they gave Sada (or CBV, I don't know it works specifically) organization rights for the 6th or 7th time.

It didn't seem that Sada this time will take an advantage of being a host - Perugia has ridiculous depth and Anastasi is rotating basically every game, so they are fresh and were up to 2-0 without half of their starting lineup against Sada starters, so I don't expect an upset this time, but we'll see.

I hope today we'll get some nice volleyball at least, because it's been messy so far both with awful organization (re Trentino-Paykan) and sloppy level of play.

Quote from Paperoga

interesting game between Siena and Padova, the two bottom teams pf the SuperLega but with a lot of quality and experienced players, mixed with some great prospects like Takahashi and Desmet.

Siena expectedly is terrible: Petric is waaaay past his prime days, Van Garderen is a mediocre player, Pinali in Ravenna was 40%-in-attack-opposite and has remained one and Mazzone-Ricci duo is fine for Italian standards, but it's not like they'll make any significant difference. The other thing is they were completely out of shape considering even Mazzone and Ricci were terrible, only Bonami is fine, I wish he had stayed in Verona, but in my eyes they were the biggest favorites to get relegated and so far it has materialized.

It was extremely dumb to buy a spot in A1, build the weakest roster in a league and (probably) get relegated - Vibo Valentia could have stayed in A1 by buying Reggio Emilia's license, but they decided to compete in A2 and to win this spot in a fair battle. And one thing was to win A1 spot in sport-based competition, but the other thing was it was late May/early June, it was very hard at that point to construct a roster that would have made any noise on Superlega level. Siena went for a shortcut, but they mixed a road and will be back next year in the same spot they were before with some money wasted.