The Columbus Crew picked up their first win of the 2023 season on Saturday night with a 2-0 win over DC United. A Lucas Zelarayan brace powered the Black & Gold to have a Crewsmas to remember in a game where Columbus was uncharacteristically out possessed by Wayne Rooney’s side.
It was a good team win for a side that is just beginning to scratch the surface of their potential under new head coach Wilfried Nancy. With more games comes more tactical nuances and details Nancy installs, so let’s dive in.
The Front Three
One thing all Crew fans can be excited about is the potential of the Black & Gold attacking front three with Cucho Hernandez, Lucas Zelarayan and Alexandru Matan. Hernandez and Zelarayan are locks to be dangerous, but Matan has shown that he can play, despite past criticisms of his defensive willingness.
The key to the front three being dangerous in this game was their ability to move around and not be restricted to one area of the pitch. Many times, in this match Hernandez was all over the attacking half of the field on the right wing, left wing, and of course the center which is his natural striker position. His variety of positioning makes it hard for defenders to track with him and it allows him to have different attacking vantage points instead of always going through the middle.
Matan and Zelarayan are slated to play as two attacking midfielders, but they often will drift depending on where the ball is. Nancy likes to create numerical advantages in the wide areas of the pitch so they will often shift over ball side so they can provide support to help the team break out.
Another thing to watch for is the variety of runs they will make. One particular pattern of play that worked well for the Crew was Matan cutting inside and then slipping the ball through to a streaking Zelarayan. This happened or came close to happening a few times, and one time it resulted in Zelarayan’s second goal of the evening. The ball never made it to Hernandez, but the times this pattern happened he was making a delayed run from the top of the box to receive a cutback from Zelarayan.
The attacking options for Columbus are subject to change as the year goes on, but it looks like the Crew are in good hands so far.
Defensive press and style
I touched a little bit on this last week, but with more game tape comes more understanding of exactly what Nancy wants his squad to do. On the defensive side of the ball, the Crew have opted to play an aggressive constant press and a high line so far this season.
Often when the opponent is possessing the ball, the Crew will send the front three to press the player that has the ball and cut off potential passes. Darlington Nagbe and Aiden Morris also will go mark players that could potentially receive the ball so they can get easy interceptions if a bad pass is played. The wingbacks will often join in as well, taking away the wingers as potential pass options. So, the only options for the opposing team in possession now is to attempt to play through it and combine or go long and hope the striker can hold the play up. Now, while the pressing was not perfect on Saturday, it was improved from the first game against Philadelphia.
The idea of playing a high line is so that the Black & Gold can keep their opponents in their own half if possible. If the press doesn’t work out and the other team breaks, the defenders have the options to have an offside trap or step to a bad pass or heavy touch. The only downside to playing this high line is if a pass is timed right the other team can have a clean break on goal.
Columbus will continue to tinker with their defensive system in the coming weeks, but after two games they seem intent on creating chaos for opposing teams.
Aiden Morris playing as a “half-pivot”
Last year in the Caleb Porter system, one of the defensive midfielders would play the role of the “pivot”, where they would drop in between the center backs so the outside backs could get upfield. On Saturday, Aidan Morris would sometimes take up the role of playing as a “half pivot”, between the outside center back and the wingback so the wing could get higher up the pitch.
This happened a lot on Yaw Yeboah’s side, which makes sense because he is the more offensive geared wingback. Morris would drift out wide and occupy the space the wingback would usually take, and then Yeboah moved higher up the field in more of a pure winger position.
This allowed the Crew to be able to connect down the sideline and possibly get Yeboah in a favorable attacking position against an opposing outside back. This is also smart on the defensive side too, because if Columbus got countered, Morris would already be in a position where he could cover for Yeboah.
This is something minute that may not play much difference at the end of the game, but with time this could lead to wingbacks racking up assists or even goals from getting in more attacking spaces.
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