I thought Ecz was the first choice for Zhu to sign but they didn't agree to terms. I think Zhu will play for Vakifbank again if she decides to have another stint at European club volleyball.
Yeah, Zhu is very loyal to the coach. If she decides to go back to EU after 2020 olympics, most likely she will return to Vakifbank unless Coach Guidetti leaves VK for some reason.
Looks like
Vakifbank will lose Zhu, K Robinson, Sloetjes, and get Haak, Gabi
Eczacibasi will lose J Larson, but get Natalia
Fennebahce will lose Bricio and Anna, but get Naz, K Robinson, Mihajlovic
When it comes to CL there are no foreigner limits. Vakif choose to use a Turkish setter but they could have had a solid veteran setter just for CL if they chose. They didn't and it may cost them.
You are absolutely right, Coach GUI really has a conflict of interest ever since he decided also to be the HC of Turkey national team. Cansu is extremely inconsistent and too young for a team like VB, but Coach GUI really wants to develop her and hope she will be a huge part for Turkey’s 2020 run. Adding what he chose to be her backup, disaster!
Well. i havent
Same old story with Vakifbank...whenever Zhu is not playing well they can`t win...surprise surprise.
I feel bad for Zhu, she simply can not have a night off. Only Rasic and Di Luliu helped a little.
Egonu 30 points in 30 sets....
Novara had a good plan, they served very well and found Zhu a lot, Zhu got 32 serves and not able to fully concentrated on offense.
Money can buy good players but can't buy championships. What has been proved so many times.
lol.... How many champions have Vakifbank won last few years.....
Cansu is horrible, how many of her sets were non-spikeable? Zhu ,sloetjes everyone, wow
Cansu is playing like...
Kelsey Robinson needs to be more aggressive, can't tip the ball all the time, can't play the game with fear
Finally motta makes some gambling adjustment~~using two local middle blocker.
I think it will be a 5-set match today.... if larson and kim are both on fire. ecz will win~~~
Unfortunately, OH/OPP is always more valuable than MB, which is why even Rasic has to stay on the bench most of the time this year. MB only plays half of the game. I was surprised to see Coach Mott uses Gib instead of Kim/Larson in any important matches.
FENERBAHÇE getting to normal today, error prone, only 7 errors in 5 sets yesterday, almost 7 now in 2 sets now
Ana is playing average today, yesterday was great
Beyza injury is a big loss, Kim has to stay on bench
They did that because Zhu's reception was not that good. Her reception improved considerably this year. She received better than Kelsey in a lot of matches.
I agree with you in general, but during the clutch time when you only have one consistent scorer, I would not allow Feberbahce to force you to go to 2nd/3rd options by targeting Zhu on serve. That's always my point, even if Zhu has the best reception in the world, the other team would still target her on serve especially during clutch time, because she is such a great attacker. Why would Vakifbank allow that to happen so easily?
I have also no idea about this....erbar gets one point from 4 spikes. I only see one time this season that gui lets zhuting free of reception and focusing on attack! Maybe gui saves this strategy for more important finals~~
Vakifbank's best line-up in clutch time last two years have always been replacing Sloëtjes by either Robinson or Hill and free Zhuting off reception duty. Vakifbank uses this strategy a lot during clutch time last few years. They only have 2 reliable OH this year, that's why Coach Gui rarely does it this year. Last few points in the 5th set, if i have to replace Erban, I would replace her by AYKAC AYCA and let Zhu focus on offense.
Take it easy.I think gui still saves some cards for the final of turkish league and champions league. Vakifbank does not prepre well for this match and they has only one day to rest. Moreover, fenerbachee plays really good especially in set5. Fenerbache has 81% spike successful rate and vakifbank has 0 block in set5. That is why vakifbank loses set 5!
I am still scratching my head why Coach Gui decided to replace Erbar in 5th set when they were up 8-7 and clearly had momentum, Erbar was about to serve, one of her best weapon, very interesting decision to say the least.
No, Kelsey did fine today. Her role isn't exactly to attack like Sloetjes or Zhu Ting. She has an extremely good balance of both attack and defense, and she was why Vakif could win that second set.
Vakifbank didn't win 2nd set, neither 3rd set. She was not able to attack at all for the first 3 sets and received/defended average, that why she was replaced by Tugba, rare. KR was much better last two sets
It's really annoying Sloëtjes always gets criticised. This season many times she was really important. As you can see now, she is really important for Vakifbank. Today she wasn't playing good and they couldn't win the match
Ebrar couldn't kill any ball at important moments, so she wasn't playing that great either.
The problem for Sloëtjes is if she doesn't hit the ball well, she wouldn't be able to contribute in other areas, average blocker, average defender.
Vakifbank didn't survive career performance of Vargas, Fatma, and Ana. Cansu, SLOETJES terrible, K Robinson horrible for 3 sets
You guys are too harsh on Eczacibasi. Unfortunately they have to fight against probably one of the best teams in the history's of women's volleyball in Vakifbank last few years. The best hitter in the world being able to receive the ball allows Vakifbank to add another hitting specialist (Sloetjes) in the lineup is just a natural advantage no other team is having right now. When you complain about Larson not being able to hit the ball consistently, well, she is a OH who receives/covers a lot. Which OH in the world can hit the ball consistently now? maybe Natialia after Zhu? Even Natialia is not that consistent as well. Of course losing to Minas was bad, but Vakifbank could easily lose to Praia as well. The Brazilian clubs are always dangerous because of fast style they play.
Boskovic's injury was unfortunate and Imoco has a great team this year. You guys saw that last year Vakifbank with an injured Zhu Ting stood no chance against Imoco as well (3rd and 4th sets). Eczacibasi will be fine, I still think Eczacibasi holds slight advantage in VVSL this year if both Boskovic and Beyza stay healthy. Vakifbank's dominance will probably end after this year, they will still be competitive next year, but Haak+Gabi won't be as good as Zhu+Sloetjes for sure.
Not only Kelsey. Zhu killed many balls just because of her power against a bad positionated block or spiking reach. Cansu's setting is generally weaker for the OHs. There was a ball in the 4th set, God only knows how Zhu killed it between the blockers and the net, that pissed Guidetti off: you could clearly see him calling Cansu and telling her to set higher.
I saw that too. As I said Candy was pretty bad, Unfortunately there is no room to play another foreigner at setter. One thing I don’t like about KR is that you don’t just tip the ball when the set is bad. Try something harder during those situations: find the block hands or the gaps between defenders, just making the defender a little more difficult, I think that’s what Coach told her during one TO, vakifbank is not a defensive team, giving up the ball like that is almost equal to giving up points. Obviously she didn’t learn much during national team season as Jordan Larson is great in that regard.
