Crew tactical review: Columbus' offense destroys Toronto at home

The Columbus Crew continued their recent hot streak, blowing out Toronto FC 4-0 at home. Columbus has now won eight of its last nine games, climbing to third in the Eastern Conference. After an early goal for Toronto was disallowed, the Black & Gold grabbed a legal goal of their own off a corner and the head of Cucho Hernandez. Christian Ramirez grabbed the second, Mo Farsi finished the third and then Diego Rossi capitalized off a Toronto backline blunder to put the Crew four goals to the good. From there, Columbus never looked back, tallying another three points in the race to catch up with Inter Miami and FC Cincinnati atop the Eastern Conference.

The Black & Gold tweaked their normal lineup and shape in this matchup to have some rotation from the midweek matchup with Nashville. Let’s dive into all the tactical decisions and nuances that allowed the Crew to emphatically send Toronto packing.

The positioning of Alexandru Matan and Columbus’ formational adaptability

One of the early surprises when the lineups were announced was the inclusion of Alexandru Matan in the starting 11. Typically, we would see a defensive midfield player like Aidan Morris, Sean Zawadzki or Derrick Jones included in the squad to sit alongside Darlington Nagbe.

On Saturday, that responsibility fell to Matan. The Romanian usually has been granted more of an attacking role higher up the pitch. In this game, he would have to put in defensive work along with getting up into the attack.

With a more defensive minded midfielder alongside Nagbe, Columbus likes to line up in a 5-2-3 that can quickly turn into a 3-2-5 or other variation. In this game, the Black & Gold stayed in a 5-2-3 on defense but used a litany of different formations to adapt to Matan’s attacking prowess.

The first formation they used on offense was a 2-4-4. 20 years ago, coaches would have never thought they could invert a 4-4-2 to a 2-4-4, but Wilfried Nancy does not opt for convention.

Both Rudy Camacho and Yevhen Cheberko stayed as the centerback pairing while Steven Moreira moved into the right side of the midfield as a half-pivot to Farsi. Nagbe and Matan both sat in central midfield, but the Romanian had more freedom to get forward into the attack.

Out on the left in midfield, Rossi would often drop in from an advanced position to occupy that space. This gave Hernandez and Ramirez more room to operate up top and allowed Rossi to get on the ball earlier in the attacking play. The Uruguayan also was a half-pivot bride to Max Arfsten, who was pushed up high on the left wing.

Yet again, this formation was subject to change, which is why there was no surprise when the Black & Gold switched to a 2-3-1-4.

This formation change was a simple tweak. Rossi would move higher up the field into an attacking midfielder role while Matan slid out to the left midfielder spot he left. Nagbe now held down the middle by himself, with Moreira pinching a bit more into the middle so there was not a massive gap in between him and Nagbe.

In the second half, the Crew switched back to more of a traditional 3-2-5. While Columbus has played most their matches in a 3-2-5, this one was different due to the personnel in the lineup.

With Matan still in the back, the 3-2-5 had more of an attacking approach. The tweak came in the midfield with him and Nagbe. Nagbe sat deep like a true defensive midfielder and pinched into the center of the pitch. Matan advanced higher up the field as a no. 10 but shaded more towards the left side.

Why the left side? Further back on the defensive line sat Moreira, who is more attack-minded out of the two outside centerbacks. With Matan on the left side of the attacking midfielder space, that left enough room for the Frenchman to make runs up the pitch into the right no. 10 spot.

If Moreira made these runs and stayed in the attack, the Black & Gold unlocked yet another formation: a 2-3-5 with an inverted triangle in the midfield.

The defense and attack remained the same, but Nagbe now sat as the lone central no. six, while Matan and Moreira played as dueling no. 10s in front of him.

Yet again, this formational fluidity is now second nature to the Crew, but it is impressive how they can adapt their playstyle to match the strengths of who is on the pitch. With Matan in the lineup, the approach was always going to be more attack-minded, and it worked like a charm. Columbus scored four goals and secured three more points as the season drags on.

Attacking approach against Toronto’s backline

There has been a consistent attacking style that the Black & Gold have employed over the past four to five games. In this span, the Crew have outscored their opponents 15-1.

The recipe for success is simple on paper, but it is much harder to replicate on the pitch. Columbus’ attack relies on creating overloads, forcing over-shifts and attacking vacated space. For that to happen though, there needs to be rapid, dynamic movement off the ball and accurate passing to get through the defense.

The first key for the Black & Gold was creating overloads to overwhelm the Toronto defense. They accomplished this by shifting much of their formation to one side. This meant if the ball went out to the left, the Crew would commit 6-7 players to that side and vice versa.

This overloading process forced the defense to decide. They could also shift numbers over to that side to combat Columbus’ excessive manpower, or they could remain balanced and risk the multitude of attackers on that side to combine and get through the defense.

This is where the idea of forcing an over-shift comes into play. If Toronto decides to stay balanced, that is no problem for the Black & Gold. They will always have a player or two open on the side of the pitch with the ball, and they will be able to play through the opposition. If Toronto shifts more numbers over, now the switch to the other side would be wide open.

Sucking Toronto into one side meant the backside wingback and centerback would likely be open to receive a switch. If that happened, the defense would be forced to scramble to the other side to shut it down. If they recover in time, the Crew can recycle the ball and try again. If the recovery comes to late though, now a wingback and an overlapping outside centerback can combine around a lone defender and make the defense pay.

That was the strategy for most the night for Columbus, but they did not want to be one, or even two-dimensional. Instead, they offered a third avenue to get after the defense and hit the back of the net.

This third way involved pulling the Toronto defenders out of position centrally to attack the space in behind them. The Black & Gold have excelled at doing this as of late, which is partly why all the goals have come.

The process involves one of the attackers dropping deeper into the midfield, hoping to drag a man-marking defender with them. If that defender follows, the attacker can play a quick layoff one-two with one of the midfielders to get them in behind. Another possibility involves the dropping attacker not even receiving the ball.

In this case, they are just a decoy to pull out a defender so another attacker can run into the space behind them.

On the flip side, if the defense decided not to follow the dropping attackers that could also spell doom. The attacker for the Crew would then be free to simply receive the ball to their feet and turn to run at the defense. This puts the opposition on the back foot and forces them to deal with an agile attacker running directly at them with options all around.

Simply put, this Columbus attack can make opposing teams pay in a hundred different ways. This adaptable fluid soccer that Nancy has installed permits this kind of freedom, and it works. The Black & Gold’s record over the past few weeks speaks to that, and they do not look like slowing down anytime soon.