2024-07-09 00:07:00
The coordinator for the national teams at the Bulgarian Volleyball Federation Nikolay Ivanov shared his opinion about the performance of our men’s team in this year’s edition of the League of Nations. Here is what the former captain of Bulgaria said:
“What happened in this month and a half gave us a lot of information. It gave us a lot of reasons to think: where we are and what we are aiming for. In the end we saw that we are in the right direction, but maybe we should be more patient to get where we want to go.On some technical things that have come out of this League of Nations, I would like to share with you something that may be of interest to you.
I did a comparison of the numbers that are shown from last year and from this year and the most interesting thing is that in the execution of the kick-off we are doing significantly better in terms of numbers – number of shots taken, points scored, etc., in compared to last year. And this is one highlight of Gianlorenzo Blengini’s work that he is very fond of – taking a risk in the execution of the opening shot, so that it can then develop as he wants.
Another thing that impressed me is that we had the opportunity to see what level of adaptability our competitors have reached. What am I saying that about? A new coach comes in with new demands, with a new vision and a new concept of the game, and we have one set of players. This is not a club team where you can take players, these are our players who have grown up over the years.
And this month and something has also been indicative, both for us and for Blendjini – how adaptable these players are and how quickly they readjust to a given system of play, to given requirements, which in turn will help them to develop as competitors. If they’re not adaptable enough, if they don’t have enough technical baggage, things don’t happen to me very often in clubs, but there were definitely a lot of positive things from this league.
Maybe another game, another win would have been good for the confidence, but I think the foundation has been laid and with a common effort to continue following the path we have drawn.”