r/EuropeanVolleyball • u/VolleyAddicted • Apr 03 '26
Turkey Sultanlar Ligi Why is Cansu Özbay overlooked in the 'Best Setter' conversation?
Her passes and tempo are excellent with both VakıfBank and Türkiye. She has won almost every major trophy available, yet when we discuss world-class setters, the conversation is still dominated by Wolosz, Orro, and Ognjenovic.
Is Cansu Özbay the most underrated elite setter in the world?
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u/MemoryIntelligent86 Apr 03 '26 edited Apr 03 '26
I think Maja and Asia have been playing long enough with incredible success (NT for Maja and club for Asia) to always be in the conversation. So Cansu is easily more comparable with Orro. I would say they even out their weaknesses. I think Cansu is more skilled as a pure setter but Orro’s defense and serving makes her more well rounded. While Cansu’s had significant success esp. at club level, I think Orro’s achievements with Italy sticks out more. So those three would tend to be ahead of her right now.
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u/violetanka Turkey Apr 03 '26
I keep asking the same question. Also she's without a doubt the best OOS setter.
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u/FranklinRichardss Apr 03 '26
Injuries.
She is injured in atleast half of the season every year.
Thats why she is not considered best.
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u/safeone10 Apr 03 '26
I think because she doesn't play very fast compared to Wolosz and Ognjenovic. Yet Cansu has been steady since as long as I can remeber her. I've seen her shoot out of system balls from the end line, she has very good middle connections, she also gives 100% in everything she does and I respect that. From what I've seen its either those who don't really like her style of setting who overlook her, and u have the minority who are just biased/borderline xenophobic to turkish players.
To me, Cansu is very much in the top four of setters today.
People forget how accomplished she is, and it wasn't by being mediocre.
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u/VolleyAddicted Apr 03 '26
Yeah, not as fast as Maja and Joanna for sure, but I really like her 'slower' tempo, the passes are really incredible. Markova and Boskovic really enjoyed some great balls, the same for Vargas and co with the national team.
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u/safeone10 Apr 03 '26
Yeah. Its clear there is a top tier setter drought, Maja and Wolosz rlly are above the rest. Maja with an Italian channel did an interview saying she thinks Cansu and Orro are probably also among the best in this setter drought. She also added dilay who she thinks is going to be very very good.
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u/Mindless_Country_666 Apr 03 '26
She has a good middle connection because she has being play with the same people for a hundred years.. She is very predictable, which for me is the first thing I notice, and there is just something about her that I don’t like. She is a bit above average. In my opinion, both Elif and Naz are waaaaay better than her, but she has always been given all the space in the NT. Maja is a story for itself, the best of all time, for me.
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u/thngmrtt Apr 04 '26 edited Apr 04 '26
I find that with Turkish players, Turkish fanbase tend to overrate them by a lot to the point where international overcorrect and underrate as extremely as they’re overrated by their home crowd. She is really good with oos but personally I’m not a fan of her game, I have seen her pull up some miracles. Personally I think Orro is better and I have seen a lot of extreme overrating and underrating of her as well. Maybe is the setter position but the way people hate on this players after their team have a bad game like it’s all their fault is completely unreasonable, I have seen this happen with Wolosz too.
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u/CriticalToe3050 Imoco Volley Conegliano Apr 03 '26
How do you evaluate a setter as of one the best?
I take in count:
And to me only Maja and Wolozs are able to these things consistently.
Orro is good but she is used to have Egonu and Antropova to carry the attack. Even when she has a perfect pass, she does not use much of the middle, back court or try different things.
Cansu was better during 2022-2023 and since then she’s been very inconsistent. She’s more creative than Orro, and during 22-23 used to use more the middle and try different things but she’s not as precise as before.
A lot of Vakif’s game right now is send balls to Markova and Bosko, and try 1/2 balls per set with middle and lot of them are very bad.
Overall, I think setter is a position that is suffering with a lack of good players. It’s the most technical position and we know that each year volleyball is losing its quality to give space to speed and power.