Mr. Stoev, what is your opinion on the performance of the men's national team in this year's "Nations League" tournament?

I can only state what I saw, namely - our overall performance has been the same for the past few years. 14th place in the VNL and 20th in the world ranking is a reflection of what was shown: weak attack, weak block (with the exception of captain Alex Grozdanov), weak and inconsistent serve, we play with many personal errors in all elements, if I'm not mistaken - in some matches we exceeded 30 team errors. But we won the most important match - the one against Turkey! Otherwise we would have been last. Not that it matters much, because this year no one is relegated from the league.

Who would you distinguish from what you've seen so far and how do you rate your boys from the youth national team included in the men's squad?

Undoubtedly our best player was the libero Martin Bozhilov, he played very consistently in all matches, he was confident in his own abilities. Georgi Tatarov hinted at progress, reducing his personal errors, Veni Antov was given a chance too late, as was known, and it was clear that we currently do not have a stable player at the opposite position. Vladislav Garkov did not get a chance to start a match, and he should have - after all, he was chosen as MVP of the domestic Super League. In my opinion, we lost Nicky Kolev for the future. The other thing I couldn't understand - which libero will we rely on in the future. Neither Simeon Dobrev nor Damyan Kolev were given a chance. Okay, Bozhilov played wonderfully, but he is unlikely to be available for the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028, after all, the boy is 37. The libero is a very important position in our team because the receivers called up to this League have a problem with the serve reception element.

Simeon Nikolov has been playing for the men's team for two years now in the key position of setter. Do you think he handled the difficult and responsible task of being the "conductor" that Bulgaria needs?

Simeon Nikolov is talented, but he still has a lot to learn to become a setter, that's why we also need an experienced player in this position. We didn't see a second setter that we could rely on.

If you had to give a grade on a six-point scale for our performance, what would it be?

I cannot make conclusions and evaluations. The analyses, conclusions and evaluations will be made by the Bulgarian Volleyball Federation, there are great capacities there who will give the most correct conclusion and the most accurate evaluation of our performance. Otherwise, your colleague from NOVA TV - Todor Hristov, after the match with Argentina said: When a Bulgarian sits down to watch volleyball, he now expects a loss, not a win. And years ago Bulgaria "shone" in the middle of the night, that's how the people watched our victories all over the world.

I also want to ask you about your popular social media post with the "Avengers" collage, how did you come up with it?

The "Avengers" was an idea of a few of my players from the youth team, the "fault" is theirs.

And finally - what's next for "Neftochimic" before the start of the season?

The preparation program is ready, we just have to clarify some control matches before the start of the championship. I wish all the boys to be healthy, to have no injuries, because we will fight on many fronts - for every match.