Soccer: Is Pensky Still Playing a 4-3-3?

[armchair]

The soccer team is frustrating: We seem to have some talent, but every time we play a quality team we get handled--lose the possession battle, give up far too many shots and get very few quality chances of our own. That usually means you are losing the midfield battles. It appears that Pensky favors the attacking 4-3-3 formation, and if so it is quite clear by now that it is not working. The stats suggest that we should change formations, pack the midfield and play a somewhat more defensively style. If you go with three attacking players up front, you need to get more than 2 shots on goal--which is pretty much what UT is averaging against better opponents. That's not enough. Didn't we get shut out by an average alabama team? Meanwhile we're getting killed on the backside, with teams peppering our goal. Georgia had 18 shots and 10 shots on goal; we got killed by Texas A&M and the UVA game was essentially the same. The coach has certainly varied the midfield and attacking personnel, but maybe we'd benefit from a more defensive style, perhaps with one or two attackers up front instead of three? I keep waiting for us to put it together and we don't.

 

[volherr3322]

I watched the Auburn game and they are frustrating to watch. The midfield can't seem to possess the ball and their passing seems to be to random spaces on the field with no real intent. The ball seemingly ends up being intercepted by opposing players. Forwards are not getting the ball where they can do something with it. I'm surprised at the lack of goals this year. Pensky is bringing in some highly rated midfielders so I hope this is a temporary problem.

 

[Sandvol]

It doesn't look like we have the talent. Give him a couple years to recruit.

 

[armchair]

Got a big game tomorrow against Mississippi! Winner gets in the tournament. Soccer team played its best game of the year against Missouri last Sunday, winning 3-0 and dominating the second half. But the team is young, inexperienced and perhaps with some talent issues in midfield (so important), and inconsistent. We beat LSU to give ourselves a good chance to make the tournament and then turned around and lost 0-2 to a vandy team that is at the bottom of the league and not going to the tournament. Killer loss. Wilkinson's long absence with a knee issue really hurt the offense--but she's back now and scored against Missouri. Team has lost a lot of close games because of scoring problems but seems to be improving in that respect. Will probably need at least two goals against Mississippi as the rebels get in the tournament with a tie. Pensky had a good recruiting year last year and needs another one this year.

 

[CannonVol80]

It doesn't look like we have the talent. Give him a couple years to recruit.

With all due respect, Pensky is in his third season. His recruiting has left a little to be desired, at this point. His best year, so far, was his first when he was playing with Angie Kelly's "team". We'll just have to see if the incoming class lives up to expectations.

Jim

 

[armchair]

At one point, several years ago, I believe we had the best program in the conference for a couple of years--or maybe it was us and florida, and we made the NCAA tourney a few years, although never went beyond the first game, maybe won one tourney game once or twice. But Kelly's recruiting started falling off and of course she eventually left, and I don't think Pensky inherited a lot of talent coming in. This year's team is pretty young--but I question Pensky's tactics as he played with three forwards all year and in most games seemed to play a pretty aggressively style with a group that had trouble scoring. That left us vulnerable going the other way and UT gave up a TON of shots in many games this year. I think he should have packed the midfield more and played a little more defensively with only one or two forwards/strikers up front--we probably could have stolen a couple of the close conference games we lost. We've got three new starters in the midfield--including one true freshman (who is pretty good), one player who was a winger the previous two years and a sophomore--and I think that has been an issue. Losing Wilkinson for several SEC games hurt big-time as we don't have another real bona vide threats. It would be nice to see them put together another good game.