The Crew fell yet again on Saturday to league points leader LAFC at home, making playoff hopes look more farfetched. Columbus now sits in 12th in the Eastern Conference, only a mere two points ahead of last place Chicago. The baffling part of Saturday’s game was the way the tide changed for the Black & Gold, from domination to subjugation in a matter of minutes. An array of mistakes and stupid decisions got in the way of the Crew securing all three points, even though they controlled the game for 60 minutes. Let’s dive into some of the tactical decisions Porter went with.
Stacking Artur and Nagbe to send the wingbacks higher
This was a subtle nuance of what Columbus has been doing for the past few weeks. In recent games, Darlington Nagbe and Artur have been filling in on defensive duty to allow Pedro Santos and Steven Moreira to go higher up the field into attacking areas. Typically, this looked like one of the midfields dropping between the centerbacks while the other stayed up in a true midfield role. With the Crew looking to try and create more of an attacking threat, Porter has decided to gamble a little bit. He tweaked this game plan by keeping Artur and Nagbe up higher. Instead of dropping in between the centerbacks, Darlington Nagbe would play right in front of them, and then Artur would play in front of Nagbe in a line. The wingbacks would still go high, the only difference compared to the last few weeks is where Darlington Nagbe and Artur would play. This means that Nagbe could still play a true midfield role in front of the centerbacks, but the downside is that now if the Black & Gold were to get counter attacked, the only deep players would be Jonathan Mensah and Josh Williams.
Wingers making cutting runs to the inside
Another little tweak to try and spark the offense. Throughout the start of the season the Crew’s emphasis has been on crossing the ball into the box using their wingers or allowing the wingers to create and dribble on the outside. That changed on Saturday a little bit, with Yaw Yeboah and James Igbekeme looking more often to make splitting inside runs. This forces the LAFC defense to have a high level of communication to pick up runners and can cause problems for the defense if not dealt with correctly and efficiently. For this to work, Miguel Berry had to drop more into the midfield to create space in behind for the wingers to run into. Columbus was hoping the Berry could draw one of LAFC’s centerbacks with him and then slip a ball in behind to one of the pacey wingers. This didn’t result in a goal or very many clear cut chances, but its something to keep an eye on in the coming games as Caleb Porter continues to experiment to get his team back on track.
What is going wrong for Columbus?
This is a loaded question, but I have a few observations from this first portion of the season of what the Black & Gold need to fix. Firstly, they simply need to finish the limited chances that they get. We are used to seeing a Crew team that can control a game for 90 minutes while creating 6-8 chances and finishing 2-3 of them. Unfortunately, this has not been the reality of this season. When Columbus gets a valuable, quality chance, they need to put it in the back of the net. Secondly, they have to quit making stupid mistakes and shooting themselves in the foot. I can think of 4-5 separate games where the Crew has conceded absolutely stupid goals because of an individual, or group mistake that should not be happening at a professional level. Columbus has just played very inconsistent, sloppy soccer, and they have paid for it by staring down the handle of the Wooden Spoon. Lastly, the Black & Gold need a real starting quality striker. The Miguel Berry experiment is over, and the only reason he is starting is because Hurtado isn’t the answer either. The Crew HAVE TO sign a quality striker in this upcoming transfer window or else Columbus shouldn’t even begin to think about contending for a playoff spot.
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