The Crew lost again Saturday, this time at home, by two goals to Orlando. This marks the third straight loss for Columbus, as critics are building for head coach Caleb Porter and the Black & Gold players. With this loss the Crew slip to 9th in the Eastern Conference standings, trailing the final playoff spot by two points. Although the Black & Gold have now failed to score in their past three games, changes were made to try and make Columbus more potent going forward. Unfortunately, those changes didn’t pan out in goals. Let’s take a look at some of these adjustments.
Pressing in a 4-2-4 formation
A big change to the Crew’s normal tactics on Saturday was the decision to utilize a new formation, the 4-2-4. In this new formation, Columbus would send Lucas Zelarayan up top alongside Miguel Berry almost as a 2nd striker, while Derrick Etienne and Yaw Yeboah pushed up as well, forming a line of 4 attacking players. This new pressing formation meant the Black & Gold were trying to throw more numbers forward to try and win the ball higher up the pitch. Columbus has struggled to score goals, that’s no mystery, so Caleb Porter decided to gamble by pushing guys higher to try and win the ball in dangerous, goal scoring areas. Along with Zelarayan and the wingers pushing up, Darlington Nagbe and Artur slid into that central midfield area and played alongside each other. Their job was to immediately press the Orlando midfielders who get the ball if the opposition broke the first line of the Crew’s press. In terms of the defense for the Black & Gold, the only change was the wide backs pushing up in the half space between the defense and midfield. This is what broke down for Columbus. Because those wide backs pushed a little bit higher than the center backs, the Crew were vulnerable to long diagonal balls over the top to the opposing wingers. The wide backs weren’t able to recover in time, and the center backs are too slow to keep up with Orlando’s pace down the wings. It was an aggressive try by Caleb Porter to get his team to score, but it didn’t pan out in the end.
Attacking in a 4-2-4 formation
Another component to the game was how the Crew decided to set up their attack. Typically, they would attack in their traditional 4-2-3-1, but Porter switched it up against Orlando. Some of this change might have to do with how they pressed and not wanting to change from their pressing formation, but the change didn’t do much damage in terms of goals. The way they set up was the same as when they pressed, with Lucas Zelarayan pushing up next to Miguel Berry as a second striker and the wingers coming alongside both of them. The role of Zelarayan as a striker though was different than Berry’s role. Zelarayan would start up top next to Berry, but he would drop into midfield and receive the ball to feet, hoping to draw the opposing center back with him. Then, this would give Miguel Berry the opportunity to run in behind the defense in the space that Lucas Zelarayan cleared out for him. The problem the Crew ran into was that Orlando’s center backs let Zelarayan drop into midfield and receive the ball, and then let the Orlando defensive midfielders deal with Lucas. When Columbus found out this wasn’t working, Zelarayan began to drift wide and become interchangeable with the Black & Gold wingers. He was just trying to find space to create and make some magic, but Orlando did a really good job a sitting back and plugging those holes, which is why the Crew had so many shots blocked. Another aspect to the 4-2-4 is the wide backs pushing up really high. When Columbus got high into Orlando’s attacking third, Pedro Santos and Stephen Moreira came forward and played almost as a second set of wingers. This gave the Crew support high up the pitch, but also left them vulnerable to the counterattack. With all these players forward, the only players back on defense were Milos Degenek, Jonathan Mensah, and one of the Black & Gold defensive midfielders. This is why Columbus was so vulnerable to the counter, because they didn’t have speed guys on the outside to keep up pace with Orlando’s wingers. Again, this formational change in the press and in attack for the Crew was a big aggressive risk by Caleb Porter, and it didn’t pan out. I don’t believe it is time to panic, because the MLS season is 34 games, and we are only 20% through it. So, buckle in, because these next few weeks will be a big defining moment in whether the Black & Gold’s season ends in triumph, or disappointment. At least the team and the coaching staff recognizes that there is a problem, and they are willing to try new ideas and tactics to try and right the ship.
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