New season starts next friday.
Most teams look quite different this season. Almost all teams have three or more new starting players (Moscow only two if Pipunyrova starts). Loko, Moscow and Kazan as usual among the favourites. Uralochka is unlikely to go as far as they did last season.
Kaliningrad: New coach (first time women). A lot of quality players. Probably the best subs.
Uralochka: No Parubets, no foreigners. Reception did not look good in cup.
Moscow: Natalia Pereira and Podkopaeva are back. Thanks to them the reception should be better than last season. Should be the main opponent for Loko.
Kazan: They seem to have to many players... Again three setters (I guess nobody wanted Lazareva)... I hope they loan out Kostina or Zamanskaia when Ezhak is joining them. Will probably need some time to find the right team.
Tulitsa: New MB's. Byarda is the only OPP which is a bit worrying. They should be quite competitive.
Proton: Malykh, Bobrova and Gatina joined. As usual almost no subs. They should be quite good if everyone stays healthy.
Leningradka: Drca, Mihajlovic, Gorbunova, Chernova and Perova joined. They have to be successful with this team. I will blame the coach if they fail...
Krasnodar: A lot of new players. Don't like the setters. OPP does not look great. Happy to see Shepeleva in Superleague.
Dinamo Metar: Several new players. Should have enough experienced player to do pretty ok. Happy that Olga Efimova (setter) is back in Superleague.
Enisey: Will be interesting to see what Perepelkina can do with this team. On paper not that strong but had a good start in the cup.
Lipetsk: Some very experienced and some very young players (16 year old Pavlova on loan from Kazan). Were disappointing the last few seasons. Hopefully the can do better this season. Setters should be better then last season.
Minchanka: New young setters and very experienced OH. Hopefully stronger than last season.
Sparta: Not sure about the OH (don't know the new ones). Reception probably still a problem.
Zarechie: A lot of young players as usual but a bit more experience then in previous seasons. Have the potential to do better than last season.