Muserski is coming to the V League!

Although it was reported early on in overseas media, the acquisition of Dmitry Muserskiy was officially announced by Suntory Sunbirds the other day.

https://www.suntory.co.jp/culture-sports/sunbirds/news/detail/20180820.html

Muserskiy is a familiar name to volleyball fans as a middle blocker representing Russia. He is said to be one of the best middle players in the world. At 218cm tall and with a maximum reach of 375cm, he is one of the tallest active volleyball players, and his spikes, serves, and blocks from that height have a strong presence. Due to his skill, he has been the best scorer in many matches despite being a middle blocker. Also, while many large Japanese players are somewhat clumsy, Muserskiy is dexterous beyond imagination given his size, and can pass and set with ease.

So, I'm sure he will be even more invincible than Hisamitsu's Akinradewo in the V-League (laughs).

What I'm curious about is his position. His main job is as a middle blocker, but he has played opposite for the Russian national team. It's well known that in the final of the London Olympics, they changed positions, with middle player Muserskiy as the opposite player and opposite player Mikhailov as the side player, and made a huge comeback to win the gold medal. His club, Suntory, has always used foreign players as opposites, so there's a good chance they'll do the same this time. However, it's a shame that we won't be able to see his quicks or blocks in the center of the court. A quick shot would probably be impossible to stop for a Japanese middle player to block. So, my optimistic observation is that it would be interesting if they used a method of using him as a middle player in the front and as an opposite player in the back, just like a libero, to make back attacks. In fact, Muserskiy was used in this way for a while on his previous team, and when he was on a team in the neighboring Korean V-League, Cuba's Simon was used in a similar way and won the league, so I think this is the most effective method.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing Muserski play in the V.League, and I hope that Japanese middle blockers will use this as a positive motivation to do their best!!!