Soccer Signing Class!

#1
armchair

armchair

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#1
Coach Pensky has just signed a good 2016 class to join the large and stellar 2015 class. This class isn't has large or as elite as last year's--but it couldn't be as the Vols signed about 9 good players last year. This class does have two or three 4 star players, two in the TopDrawer top 150, plus a Wisconsin Gatorade Player of the year and some other skilled kids.

The challenge now will be for Pensky and his assistants to manage the considerable young talent that this team has. I didn't think they did a very good job of it last year, frankly, though there were a couple of key injuries. It will be interesting to see who plays in which spots---and whether we can be a more effective attacking/scoring team than we've been. With the players we have, there is no reason not to be. Pensky seems to like welping the ball down the field to wingers and a center forward (Wilkinson)--but IMO we have too much middle-of-the-field talent to just play long ball out of a 4-3-3. We'll see. Some of the team's athletic forwards/midfielders will probably will be switched to defense as we need some depth at center back and fullback and more athleticism in our holding mids, IMO. Should be an exciting 2016 team; I'm looking forward to seeing some of the spring games as the Vols are playing some good teams.

Vol Soccer Announces Seven Newcomers for 2016 - University of Tennessee Official Athletic Site
 
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#3
#3
Good post AC. I was fortunate to be with the team during my junior year at UT (not as a player). Coach AK used similar tactics in which centermids and flankers would play the ball much forward into open space where a winger could field the ball, advance it, and center it. As a youth soccer coach it was very interesting to see a professional coach tactics and drill. I try and keep tabs on the LV soccer team and look forward to seeing them do well.
 
#4
#4
Paintballers are close to locking down a top 5 team... good news all around the hill.
 
#5
#5
armchair said:
Coach Pensky has just signed a good 2016 class to join the large and stellar 2015 class. This class isn't has large or as elite as last year's--but it couldn't be as the Vols signed about 9 good players last year. This class does have two or three 4 star players, two in the TopDrawer top 150, plus a Wisconsin Gatorade Player of the year and some other skilled kids.

The challenge now will be for Pensky and his assistants to manage the considerable young talent that this team has. I didn't think they did a very good job of it last year, frankly, though there were a couple of key injuries. It will be interesting to see who plays in which spots---and whether we can be a more effective attacking/scoring team than we've been. With the players we have, there is no reason not to be. Pensky seems to like welping the ball down the field to wingers and a center forward (Wilkinson)--but IMO we have too much middle-of-the-field talent to just play long ball out of a 4-3-3. We'll see. Some of the team's athletic forwards/midfielders will probably will be switched to defense as we need some depth at center back and fullback and more athleticism in our holding mids, IMO. Should be an exciting 2016 team; I'm looking forward to seeing some of the spring games as the Vols are playing some good teams.

Vol Soccer Announces Seven Newcomers for 2016 - University of Tennessee Official Athletic Site
Click to expand...


You see a lot of that in the college game. It takes time and a lot of tactical acumen to play a more possession oriented game. The related dilemma is that the season packs a lot of games into a short time line so the strategic side of the game is often sacrificed to expediency.

So, if you have speed and size, a team can be very dangerous quickly by playing long ball. This is one sport where pressure to deliver wins now competes with longer term development goals.

On the men's side, a major revamp is coming in term of NCAA soccer is organized (moving it from a Fall to a fall an spring sport) in order to facilitate player development. I am not sure if that change will also effect the women's game.
 
#7
#7
Thanks AC...nice to see someone still employs a fullback. :)
 
#10
#10
madtownvol said:
You see a lot of that in the college game. It takes time and a lot of tactical acumen to play a more possession oriented game. The related dilemma is that the season packs a lot of games into a short time line so the strategic side of the game is often sacrificed to expediency.

So, if you have speed and size, a team can be very dangerous quickly by playing long ball. This is one sport where pressure to deliver wins now competes with longer term development goals.

On the men's side, a major revamp is coming in term of NCAA soccer is organized (moving it from a Fall to a fall an spring sport) in order to facilitate player development. I am not sure if that change will also effect the women's game.
Click to expand...

I've been waiting for the NCAA to lengthen the soccer season. Having soccer in the fall and spring would improve the overall product of the games.
 
#11
#11
The soccer season IS too compact, and the SEC schedule of playing on Friday and Sunday of every week is dumb. I just looked at UVA's schedule, and the ACC plays on Thursday and Sunday, so the players have an extra day of rest. That makes a lot more sense than the SEC schedule.

As for style of play, a lot of teams play good possession soccer, including florida--and neither they nor anybody practices any more than we do. The technical skills of your players, individual players, can be a factor--and has been a factor with some of our players, but then you've got to recruit more technical players and emphasize it more in training. No matter what style you play, technical skill is paramount. I don't think that will be a problem for us going forward--players now have better ball skills than in the past because they play more soccer, and we've recruited better players. I don't know whether Pensky simply likes playing direct--or whether he's played that way because of talent limitations. I do know that it hasn't worked all that well. It certainly can work when you have great athletes with size at forward, like Wilkerson--but if that's the essence of your attack, then good teams will be ready for it and defend the long ball pretty easily. Last year we had an outstanding athlete at forward--Bialczak--and through the first half of the season she hardly had a decent shot on goal. We kicked it deep to her, she ran balls down, but she was defended well. The team struggled to score all year--the Vols were a bit of a personnel mess, IMO. (When Bialczak was moved to midfield late in the year, the offense became more dynamic and she had much more of an impact on games. She didn't seem to have much experience as a midfielder, but certainly gave the Vols a desperately needed threat coming down the middle of the field.) I expect that she'll be back at forward this year, and I expect that Pensky will stick with the 4-3-3, though who plays midfield will be interesting. Last year's midfield contributed zero to the attack and that has to change. Get the real talent on the field and let's win some games!

And, damn: it's sad that football and basketball fans STILL show their ignorance by telling us they don't like soccer. Whats evah: Don't read the thread and bore us with another snide comment.
 
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#12
#12
armchair said:
The soccer season IS too compact, and the SEC schedule of playing on Friday and Sunday of every week is dumb. I just looked at UVA's schedule, and the ACC plays on Thursday and Sunday, so the players have an extra day of rest. That makes a lot more sense than the SEC schedule.

As for style of play, a lot of teams play good possession soccer, including florida--and neither they nor anybody practices any more than we do. The technical skills of your players, individual players, can be a factor--and has been a factor with some of our players, but then you've got to recruit more technical players and emphasize it more in training. No matter what style you play, technical skill is paramount. I don't think that will be a problem for us going forward--players now have better ball skills than in the past because they play more soccer, and we've recruited better players. I don't know whether Pensky simply likes playing direct--or whether he's played that way because of talent limitations. I do know that it hasn't worked all that well. It certainly can work when you have great athletes with size at forward, like Wilkerson--but if that's the essence of your attack, then good teams will be ready for it and defend the long ball pretty easily. Last year we had an outstanding athlete at forward--Bialczak--and through the first half of the season she hardly had a decent shot on goal. We kicked it deep to her, she ran balls down, but she was defended well. The team struggled to score all year--the Vols were a bit of a personnel mess, IMO. (When Bialczak was moved to midfield late in the year, the offense became more dynamic and she had much more of an impact on games. She didn't seem to have much experience as a midfielder, but certainly gave the Vols a desperately needed threat coming down the middle of the field.) I expect that she'll be back at forward this year, and I expect that Pensky will stick with the 4-3-3, though who plays midfield will be interesting. Last year's midfield contributed zero to the attack and that has to change. Get the real talent on the field and let's win some games!

And, damn: it's sad that football and basketball fans STILL show their ignorance by telling us they don't like soccer. Whats evah: Don't read the thread and bore us with another snide comment.
Click to expand...

I see if the ACC saying the Thursday and Sunday change was good for them....I see the SEC following suit
 
#13
#13
armchair said:
And, damn: it's sad that football and basketball fans STILL show their ignorance by telling us they don't like soccer. Whats evah: Don't read the thread and bore us with another snide comment.
Click to expand...

Parochialism and ethnocentricism on full display. Futball/soccer is the world's most popular sport by a landslide but hey I don't watch/understand the so sport so it must not matter. That attitude also betrays a generational rift; American millennials have grown up in a world with FIFA (the video game not the organization), Messi, Neymar, and Ronaldo as iconic superstars; the US women's team as celebrities, and of course playing the sport from early on. But get off my lawn with those darned goals, cross over dribbles, and soccer balls :realmad:!!!!!

On the scheduling, my son plays for one of the better D3 programs and his teams competitive season is insane. Mid August they can begin training and then have a tournament over Labor Day; then they are in a quickly into a two game a week schedule. Between recovery time, travel etc. the actual time for quality training really gets squeezed; and then you have situations where key players are recovering from vary injuries and that means that there are relatively few times where the core unit is really working on possession style play.

Post season, the crazy NCAA rules kick in which place severe restrictions on the number of organized, coach run practices that can be held over the long off season (November to May). The kids do a lot on their own during the off-season but that is not quite the same as working with the coaches.
 
#14
#14
I hear you on the crazy, condensed schedule, Mad--but it's the same for everybody, yes? Pensky, like every coach, has his preferred style of play, and that's cool. I did not like some of his personnel decisions last year, and the 4-3-3 has not been effective since he's been here. Whatever: He needs results this year--and do that we've got to be a better attacking team and score more than 1 goal a game. He simply cannot play another 3-man midfield with Cousins and Baldwin and one other this year. That was not a good midfield last year--one of various problems--and it won't be a good midfield this year, either. I'd like to see us play a lone striker (Wilkinson, ideal role for her) and put four in the midfield. We could play a 4-1-4-1, with Cousins as a sweeper/holding mid linking to the center mids--maybe Bialczak (who is an ideal box to box player with her pace and athleticism) and maybe Marcano in more attacking midfield role. And then two players on the outside, with Wilk as lone striker. I hope he keeps Bialczak in the midfield and plays Marcano more; we've got a lot of midfield/attacking talent now. The coaches will surely experiment. I'm going to watch the team's spring games against va. tech and uva in blacksburg, should be interesting. I didn't know you had a son who plays--very cool!
 
#15
#15
armchair said:
I hear you on the crazy, condensed schedule, Mad--but it's the same for everybody, yes? Pensky, like every coach, has his preferred style of play, and that's cool. I did not like some of his personnel decisions last year, and the 4-3-3 has not been effective since he's been here. Whatever: He needs results this year--and do that we've got to be a better attacking team and score more than 1 goal a game. He simply cannot play another 3-man midfield with Cousins and Baldwin and one other this year. That was not a good midfield last year--one of various problems--and it won't be a good midfield this year, either. I'd like to see us play a lone striker (Wilkinson, ideal role for her) and put four in the midfield. We could play a 4-1-4-1, with Cousins as a sweeper/holding mid linking to the center mids--maybe Bialczak (who is an ideal box to box player with her pace and athleticism) and maybe Marcano in more attacking midfield role. And then two players on the outside, with Wilk as lone striker. I hope he keeps Bialczak in the midfield and plays Marcano more; we've got a lot of midfield/attacking talent now. The coaches will surely experiment. I'm going to watch the team's spring games against va. tech and uva in blacksburg, should be interesting. I didn't know you had a son who plays--very cool!
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The big issue is anyone that wants to compete at the highest levels of women's college soccer is that the direct style of play is going the way of the dinosaur. The top teams in the country and SEC - FSU, UVa, PSU, Stanford, Texas AM, Florida - have either adopted or transitioned to a possession style of play.

Look at UNC. They are no longer the dominant program and much of it gets to how they have historically played. Anson Dorrance is playing catch up transitioning his style of play and I would argue UT needs to make the same transition.
 
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