Before the season starts in two days, we have asked Head Coach Marco Motta his previews about our youthful 2020-21 roster and what he expects from each one of his students.
Liberos
Our talented libero Simge has completed her development to become a top-level libero. I think she is now at the peak of her career and ready to embrace the role of a leader for her team.
Despite the gap year she took last season, Melisa has been pushing and improving herself during the preseason. With the help of her past experiences in the Turkish League, she is giving us the signs that she can support Simge well during the season.
Opposite Players
Tijana’s place in the world volleyball is beyond dispute. Although she is still young, she is experienced in volleyball and has the ability to be a good leader to the team. People may speak highly of her attacks and serves but one of her most important characteristics that is not mentioned often is that she has the best defensive skills as an opposite player. Her defenses at critical moments helped us win games many times. She works hard and becomes a great role model to the other players in the team.
This year we want to bring the best out of Melis as an opposite who also helps the receivers in reception and fits the team in different rotations. We aim that this role of Melis will also let us create different tactical options.
Outside Hitters
Hande who was one of the most impressive players of last season’s Turkish National Team that won the European Olympic Qualification has taken a place in the starting six within a team structuring of the Club that dates back to the last 2-3 seasons. During the lockdown, she has recovered her injury which she suffered after the Olympic Qualifiers and got physically ready for the season. We believe she will continuously add on to her performance from last season and shoulder this responsibility well.
Jordan is one of the most talented players in the world in her generation. As part of Eczacıbaşı’s future planning, we see Jordan as an athlete who has great capacity to improve herself day-by-day. With her talent she is one of the best players of her generation who is open to improvement. We believe she will improve her reception through her talent and the hard work that she puts in.
Fatma is already one of the most important members of the Turkish National Team. We believe she will help us a lot during the season as a player who can balance the team performance. Her consistent performance and experiences would contribute us a lot at critical moments.
Saliha has shown a great development in comparison to last season. Watching her play reminds us of an Eczacıbaşı tradition. Saliha has a bright path in her future, which looks same as the ones of the Eczacıbaşı outside hitters Natalia, Esra, Neriman, Hande, Fatma and Şeyma who have also been important figures of the Turkish National Team.
Setters
Three years ago, we have included Elif and Saliha Şahin sisters to our future team structuring. In addition to their experiences with the Junior and U20 National Teams, young setter Elif had her first experiences at the professional level in the past two seasons and finished last season as the best scoring setter of the Turkish League. We believe it is time for our promising setter Elif to take another important step in her career.
The promising young setter of the Serbian National Team, Sladjana had experience in the Polish and Italian Leagues. We believe her experience as a Tiger will remark an important milestone in her long volleyball career. Her dynamic style completes our team structure well. We hope that she would add domestic and European success with our Club on top of her achievements at the top level with her National Team.
Middle Blockers
Last season we finished the league as the best blocking team. Especially, middle blockers Beyza and Yasemin had a very efficient period during the pandemic where they improved themselves physically. The Club has big expectations from both of them. At our latest friendly matches, we have observed a bigger improvement from both of them than they did last season. This is satisfying news for us.
Chiaka has a great natural talent. She has achieved important things with the U.S. National Team in past seasons. From what we observe we can say that Chiaka who also played in the Polish and Italian Leagues is currently playing the most productive times of her career. During this season she will spend with us, we believe that she will show what she is able to do as an experienced and talented player.
Playing on loan at another Club has been good for Merve because she had experience outside her home. In 2019 U20 World Championship, Merve has been the best middle blocker of the tournament. We expect her to continue her improvement with us after playing at Karayolları for one season.
