Posts by jetmasters

Quote from bumpsetspike

Do you know if Zhang is playing this CVL season?

With Shi Hairong taking over Jiangsu he might favor the young players he trained and choose to develop them instead. One things for certain, I would like to see Gong get some much needed rest, she deserves it.

I wouldn't know. I'm the least knowledgeable guy you should ask about Chinese club volleyball since I don't follow it. But it's good to know someone is taking over Cai Bin in Jiangsu because I don't think he's a coach that likes to play young players or knows how to develop young players. Just looked at how many minutes the younger players he selected got during VNL and WCh. So it's a blessing in disguise for Wu Mengjie and company that they weren't selected by Cai Bin. I think they would just rot on the bench under Cai Bin instead of playing a lot of minutes at AVC Cup. Hope everyone stays healthy and get their needed rest.

Quote from benchwarmer

LYY even with her weight before joining NT was already playing well and the top scorer in CVL. She is a talented player. WYL was not even close to LYY’s level; don’t think she will do any much different / better if she loss some weight.

Never said she wasn't. But beginning of Li Yingying's national career, she was indeed slow and had subpar reception. She improved tremendously after her weight loss on her all around game. Scoring has always been her strong point. Wang Yunlu was hitting 20/10 during VNL and improved to about 40/30 for WCH in short amount of time . I do believe she will improve with weight loss. It will help with floor defense and ease up on offense. But time is not on her side since she is not young and with the return of Zhu and Zhang, I think she won't be with the team unless Cai Bin remains the coach.

Quote from sciew

Good morning, everyone, I woke up and saw the scores. Not very surprised by the result of China-Italy since Italy is pretty strong themselves, but am slightly upset about the Japan-Brazil match. It was very close for the Japanese

If Brazil had Cai Bin, Japan would have swept. Shows how a top coach can turn things around. Anyway I just think Japan choked due to inexperience.

Quote from fire_cai_bin

Also unfortunate for the one good match the Dutch had to be facing us. Although I didn't watch Japan vs Brazil, it sounded like it would have been hard to beat either team in the quarters.

I would take my chances with them than Italy because Italy has always been the toughest matchup for China during Zhu Ting era. Second would be USA and then comes Brazil in my opinion. Japan would be ideal because of the large margin historical head to head but unlikely because this team would have to finish number 1. Anyway just tough break after getting upgraded libero only to have Gong played injured. She was the second best OP during VNL in scoring/efficiency.

Quote from bumpsetspike

Compaing Wang Yunlu to an elephant is uncalled for and unnecessary.

Was never meant as an insult. Li Yingying used to be clumsy and slow until her weight loss did wonders. Wang Yunlu can do it too and she proved many haters wrong because of her poor performance during VNL.

Actually this team is much stronger than it looks on paper. It's unfortunate to have Cai Bin as a coach to begin with, along with Gong starting the tournament playing injured, and facing Italy again in the quarters. China just couldn't catch a break with healthy players. I think losing a point against Netherlands was the deciding factor for getting a medal opportunity.

All the wings got neutralized again but still managed to win a set against Italy. With a healthy Zhu, we wouldn't be playing Italy in the quarterfinals. Zhu opens up everything because the opposing defense will be focusing on her. It's pretty much guaranteed podium finish with a healthy Zhu Ting. It's just bad luck to have so many starters out due to injuries. Pretty much my main concern is and always will be the health of players.

Here's my two cents on the players performances.

Li Yingying demonstrated she's a top all around OH. She just needs to improve on scoring during crunch time. I believe she will because she has a high vball iq. She's the most improved player for me.

Wang Yunlu was surprising solid throughout but just couldn't deliver against top teams. My advice to her is lose weight because she's just big and slow like an elephant. She would definitely make a solid backup if she's with the team in the future.

Gong hands down the best all around OP. Too bad she got injured. Wish her a speedy and full recovery.

Middles didn't improve. I like Yuan the most when she was young and fearless. Then she ran into some sort of mental block. Some other MBs will need to step up in the blocking department.

Setters the same with middles. Yao Di will be back. Main question is Ding Xia's future. Any young potential replacements?

Wang Mengjie is the best libero for CNT. Just need to find a good backup.

The rest of the players didn't get much playing time so on comment. Everything is up to speculation.

Now the big question on coaching position. I think anyone else is better than Cai Bin. I would pick An Jiajie because he's with the team the most under Lang Ping. Don't think Lai Yawen would take on head coach position because she's been with the team since forever. My second choice would be Wang Baoquan since he's the best club coach. If no one else wants it, get a foreign coach.

A good coach is very important. At least we won't see Cai Bin again, hopefully.

Italy has been the toughest matchup for China so it will be extremely tough. Key factor would be the wings offense. During VNL, only Gong played well and all got neutralized last game they played against Italy. I think the middles should just focus on Egonu. Good luck.

Too many errors from the team. Props to Yang Hanyu coming in to score all the necessary points. Critical victory and get a day of rest before match against Italy.

Congrats to Chinese Women's basketball team for getting the silver. Guards need to improve in order to beat USA.

Anyway Cai bird will not make any adjustments no matter what with his dodo style coaching. It is all dependent on the players' performances. I'm more concerned about players' health than anything else since it's a long tournament. Hope there's no burnout like previous editions.

Quote from fire_cai_bin

was half-hoping for LYY and GXY to say "fuck this" and refuse to play, but oh well.

Biggest problem is the coach or lack of coach. If he makes no adjustments, it's all up to the players to play well in order to win. It's impossible to expect any player to play well every match and every set. If only we can use AI coach, even a robot is a better choice.

Ni Feifan (injured) and Yu Jiarui didn't make the cut. Final roster:

OH: Li Yingying, Wang Yunlu, Jin Ye, Wang Yizhu

MB: Yuan Xinyue, Wang Yuanyuan, Yang Hanyu, Gao Yi

OP: Gong Xiangyu, Chen Peiyan

S: Ding Xia, Diao Linyu

L: Wang Mengjie, Wang Weiyi

I thought Wang Weiyi would get cut because she is probably the worst libero I've seen playing for the CNT.

Quote from bumpsetspike

Heck I wish Liu Yanhan was available. She would be a much better option than Wang Yunlu and Jin Ye, but then again why would she at this point.

Did she retire or taking a break? No reason not to include her if she's available.

Quote from fire_cai_bin

I'm just disappointed that the young outsides aren't given a chance. VNL was the perfect time to develop them and that remains my main criticism of his strategy as a coach.

That's part of a coach's shortcomings. Cai Bin has no plan from what we have seen during VNL so no surprise he wasted a good opportunity to test young players. I believe he's just a fill in so I'm not worry about the future unless CVA keeps him as a coach after this tournament.

Quote from fire_cai_bin

Yep. Zhang comes back and this team should make podium.

It sucks that both Zhu and Zhang are out the same time. So no expectation from me even if Cai Bin was not the coach. I just hope they can play better than VNL even if it's not good enough for a medal.

Quote from bumpsetspike

Not that it matters since one will eventually be cut, but only Cai Bin would travel with 3 liberos when that spot could be filled with an extra OH.

Even if he keeps playing the same roster, let the bench rot, do some random subs, and call it a day, pretty much the main problem during VNL was secondary OHs couldn't score. Wang Yunlu was hitting 20/10, Jin Ye 30/20, with both average 30/15 flat in percentage and efficiency. Despite all the team flaws, as long second OHs can hit 40/30 flat, getting on the podium wouldn't be hard. Wang/Jin combo would need to step up their offensive game because I don't think Cai Bin would try Wang Yizhu, whose a big question mark. Anyway CNT needs a new coach after this tournament regardless of the outcome.

Quote from bumpsetspike

So they're traveling with all 16 players?

My guess, cut Wang Weiyi and Yu Jiarui.

Yeah. Could be worse, Cai Bin cutting Ding Xia and Wang Mengjie.

16 players roster. Same roster as VNL playoffs with Yu Jiarui (S) and Wang Mengjie (L) added.

OH: Li Yingying, Wang Yunwei, Jin Ye, Wang Yizhu

MB: Yuan Xinyue, Wang Yuanyuan, Yang Hanyu, Gao Yi

OP: Gong Xiangyu, Chen Peiyan

S: Ding Xia, Diao Linyu, Yu Jiarui

L: Wang Mengjie, Wang Weiyi, Ni Feifan

Just pretend you are watching a very bad movie directed by Cai Bin and everything will be fine. There is a sequel coming btw. See you guys at the premiere.

Quote from benchwarmer

Don’t compare the men NT and women NT. The men NT was never considered a top team in the international tournaments. A good foreign coach would not make much difference. The women NT is a different story. A good foreign coach could be beneficial since Cai Bin is not good enough. I don’t think the language translation will be much of a problem. Japan and Korea have had foreign coaches. However, WYL, JY, and WWY certainly have to go for they will just be liabilities. As to the setter, there is no other better choice yet.

Since when am I comparing the men's team to the women's team? If you want to talk about men's team, they had their worst results under a foreign coach. Cai Bin is not even the best coach in China. I think everyone chickened out, including An Jiajie, to take over Lang Ping. Japan and Korea didn't have success neither with a foreign coach. So picking a right coach is important, domestic or foreign.

As for the players you mentioned, they will be replaced when the regular starters come back. It's pretty much one and done like many other players who've failed to play well. Hopefully Zhang Changning is healthy to play at World Championships because I don't think Cai Bin will make any changes to the roster.