Posts by serdar

bumpsetspike wrote:

A nice new change of scenery does seem more fun then sticking to the same old same old. And I think some players see club play more as for fun and experience. The real rewards are with their NT. But I guess it all really depends on the type of player you are.

It also shows how good a club really is if you can win with a different set of roster year after year.

I don't agree, if things are working what's the point of changing. To me, dramatic changes only make sense when the group is unsuccessful, which is not the case for Vakıfbank. Moreover Vakıfbank's success relies on their stability. In last 10 years they only change only 1 or 2 players from their starters opposed to Eczacıbaşı which changed their whole starting 6 almost every season.

There are only a bunch of top Opps in the market and also only a few clubs which can afford to pay those. Thus, if one would transfer to another club, there could be a chain of transfers

those are only gossips, nothing reliable. I don't see any reason for Rasiç to move from Vakıfbank while she is winning everything right now. Who would want to deal with looong traveling all over Russia instead of playing in Istanbul which is also close to serbia.

On the other hand, Sloetjes would make sense if Haak transfer is true.

QueenPiccininiLover wrote:

No, I didn't. They're still a weak team to me. I just watched the 5th set and I wish I didn't, 'cause it was a very awful show: 2 teams choking big time, more mistakes than points and very poor level overall.

Side note: Vasileva had her once in a while decent passing game, ending up with a 33% perfect reception, which is high considering her standards.

Having 2 setting dependant players like Hill and Fabris is a well known problem for Imoco. Lowe can't change anything, 'cause she's another setting dependant player. Here you can see how much Hodge is missed. Sylla is the one who can change something and score out of system, but she's completely unstable along the game. Whenever Wolosz is just fast and not accurate, Imoco collapses.

Well, is there any team that you don't call as choker? Seriously you keep telling this to almost all top clubs (especially the ones include Americans). and NTs. I am curious which teams are up to your expectations?

Side note: even most of defensive OHs can't get higher than 50% at perfect reception (talking about the ones using mikasa). To me, criteria should be positive reception when it comes to judge an offensive OH and 56% positive out of 36 reception is pretty good stat from an offensive OH

QueenPiccininiLover wrote:

Guidetti said: "Imoco plays the best volleyball in Europe".

I knew Imoco had zero chance against top european teams, but losing against a team like Savino Del Bene...

Another masterpiece by Parisi.

Well you are the last person to make fun of crovolley. You were the one claiming that "scandicci is a terrible team and they are not on the same level with novara and conegliano. There's no way that scandicci can compete with these two and bla bla" now that scandicci won against conegliano both of the matches, I hope you changed your mind😏

Why is china seeded as 4th?🤔

beri wrote:

Volleyball timed would just be weird imo just because there are already so many natural pauses in-game. Like Basketball and Football, Handball, Hockey etc. its always ongoing whereas when at Volleyball the ball hits the floor it's over. I also had this idea a while ago but in Volleyball maybe it's weird.

Just imagine the time-wasting on a team with a lead...

Just cut out technical timouts completely, maybe speed-up the time inbetween point-serve just a little. I think that would be more then enough already. 2 TO's + 2 Challenged is enough breaks.

I agree, technical timeouts are totally unnecessary when there is challenge rights. Cutting them to one already made a difference but I would be happier if they will abolish it for good

Calm your tits down! I'm also skeptical with this idea but there's no need to be so overdramatic about it.

We simply don't have an offensive outside hitter except hande and hande has been failing as OH for last 2 seasons. She doesn't show any sign of improvement at reception. However she has played very spectacular as opp so it might not be the worse idea to keep her as opp instead of desperately trying to make an OH out of her. Ebrar seems to have a star quality as opp, that's why I'm also rooting for her in this position but if she shows good signs as a receiver during trainings, maybe guidetti sees a future in her as OH. That's why I think we should wait and see how it will look this summer.

By the way, sheila was terrible when she came to Vakıfbank whereas sloetjes was reaching her peak so it was totally a fair decision in between these two. Moreover, Buijs is not same type of player like Hill at all. She didn't have a spectacular season in Vakıfbank back then (neither vasileva or a few others) but at that time it was a right decision to transfer her as an offensive OH.

You are being unfair to guidetti by forgetting he is the reason that we have zehra right now. For instance, Yasemin güveli was as good as zehra but Eczacıbaşı/motta didn't trust/invest her and she still didn't make much improvement while zehra became best Turkish MB after Eda thanks to guidetti. Don't forget also how positively she affected Gözde as a player while he was not our NT trainer

ossubtus wrote:

guys, is yanelis santos still active, where is she now?

She is playing in PTT, second division team in Turkey. She was still good when she was playing in Ilbank last season but the team was full of youngsters so she couldn't help much.

I agree with Elif Şahin. Especially considering Cansu's big reliability at blocking, it could be wise to bring a tall setter. I wouldn't be complaining if Guidetti picks Buse Unal over her though. I think Buse has been very consistent for whole season and she has very dangerous serves.

I am not opposed to the idea of giving chances to Derya and Tuğba during the VNL this summer but this could be exact opposite of what Guidetti claimed before (if you don't play in your club, you can't get into NT). That's why I feel like Fatma will be the 4th OH next to Meliha, Seyma and Hande (or Ebrar). Ceren Kestirengöz is a no-no for me, she has been another failed example of an opposite-trying-to-be-an-outside. She has no improvement in reception throughout the season and she is not a killer attacker neither. As far as I remember, she was injured in last couple of weeks anyway. Thus, I wouldn't count on her. On the other hand, Saliha had a few decent performance but whenever she struggles she got replaced Mariana Aydın who is also quite an average player. She was on the bench for half of the season. If she wouldn't be playing full time, she'd better stay in Eczacıbaşı and work under guidance of a good coach such as Motta. I do think she has potential to be a good player but so far she didn't fulfill the expectations from her.

I like Cansu Cetin so far, I'd rather have her instead of a third libero (I am clearly not a fan of Aylin Sarıoğlu). Indeed as long as Ebrar and Hande is in the roster there's no point to bring Meryem. I think having a defensive OH such Cansu to replace Ebrar/Hande in the backrow could pay off better than double-substitution with Meryem-Cağla. I wish Güldeniz was in GS or FB this season, she could definitely make a big difference in both teams right now.

What do you think about Birgul Güler? She was a decent player in last two seasons but she is simply terrible this season, is injured or what?

Tyler wrote:

Monza's middle-blockers do not contribute in block at all and in general their whole team is poor in that part of the game - only 4 blocks against against 20! by Scandicci. Both Adenizia and Stevanović have 5 blocks, while Adams, Melandri and Devetag 1. That's an enormous difference.

Adams is known to be a weak blocker but Melandri is surprising me so far, she was doing way better job at blocking last season before she got the injury.

Stevanoviç really needs to step up her attacking.

beri wrote:

Hande had 32 pts! 51%

Can't wait for Hande + Cansu + Ebrar + Meliha + Eda + Zehra + Simge in NT

imo this will be the starters. And this team can cause huge problems for the top teams imho as well

the core of the team is having good season in their club teams however, all the rest is quite bad so far. This season Seyma Ercan hasn't showed any performance that she was more than average, especially in attack. Also both Cağla and Gamze are playing bad. Meryem Boz has been embarrassing so far.

I am still skeptical about Ebrar as OH. She wasn't bad in 2 matches but these were against weak teams. With NT, she will have to play against very dangerous servers. I will wait till I see a few more matches before getting excited about her new position.

By the way Hande played mostly as OH in this match, Atkinson was the opposite during first 3 sets.

FreeballPodcast wrote:

serdar that's 100% the plan, now we have found you we will refer to you and use your questions. At the moment though we are a couple of weeks of Infront with content but when we find a new guest we will come here for your questions.

beri thanks for passing that pod!

Padar we like your style!!

Have a great day guys!

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Good news! Looking forward to new podcasts!

Matthias wrote:

He's turning more and more into a narcissistic asshole year after year. Success does not become him well...

I respect him a lot as a coach but this type of behavior is simply ugly

hakin12 wrote:

Brakocevic is, purely judged by her body language, such a charismatic and bossy alpha-female its not even funny. The definition of a leader-type, exuberates so much energy and vitality.

I agree, I always thought she has 'Big Dick Energy'

pope wrote:

Robin, Hill, Anne, C.Boseti,Adams,Salas,Van Hecke...and so on.

(But I guess I should not include Salas in the list because she did not play in Italy in the previous season before she went to Turkey.)

That's not true for Salas, she was superb in Turkey but so-so in Italy.

It is true that all the other players had bad seasons in Turkey but you can't simply conclude that Italian league is weaker than Turkish league

USAvolleyfan wrote:

Natasa Krsmanovic in Eczacibasi, oh wow! Are they really that unsatisfied with Gibby? Natasa has been off the scene for quite some time

Gibby has been really disappointing so far. To me, it was a wrong transfer from the beginning of the season. I think it is a good move by Eczacıbaşı. Krsimanoviç is/was a great slide attacker with decent blocking skills. This transfer also might mean that Beyza's shoulder injury is serious. They can't rely on young Merve Atlier for the rest of season. I wonder if they can call Yasemin Güveli back from Karayolları. She is still Eczacıbaşı's player

Good job guys! I like the choices of guests so far. I like dream team part of the podcast. It would be also nice to ask them about the players in their position they look up to or about their best friends in the nt or club team. Alternatively we can make a thread where forum users can come up with their own question of which you may ask a few during the podcast

QueenPiccininiLover wrote:

Savino Del Bene gets the minimal, the CL ticket. That's it. They have no chance against the other 2 top teams in the long run.

Don't agree with you at all! Scandicci has a very solid roster and has all the strength to compete with 2 top teams as they have shown previously (they have beaten both Novara and Conegliano in Serie A games and in CL they only lost to Conegliano in the tie-break). Their main problems are underperforming Malinov and Stevanoviç. I definitely think they can play in the finals if Malinov and Stevanoviç would step up their games in the upcoming matches

Spyro wrote:

I think she's overrated, I can't remember the last time I saw her spiking with the right timing, maybe it never happened

Well clearly you didn't watch her enough, she is one of the rare MBs who can both attack and block😏