Crew tactical review: Nashville breaks Columbus' dreams under a neon moon

The Columbus Crew were back in action for a midweek clash against Nashville SC, but fans will be wishing there was no game at all. The hosts took the lead just over a minute into the match, marking the second straight game where the Black & Gold have conceded within two minutes. Nashville grabbed another goal in the first half, sending the Crew into the locker room in a 2-0 hole. After the events in Cincinnati on Saturday, it was not a stretch to say Columbus could make the comeback. Unfortunately for fans of the Black & Gold, it was not meant to be. Nashville would eventually make it 3-0, and that is how the game would end.

It was an incredibly ugly game from Wilfried Nancy’s side, so let’s dive into all the tactics that sent the Crew home with nothing to show for.

Nashville’s well-thought-out gameplan

Nashville came into this game with a clear motive on the offensive side. They were going to use Columbus’ tendency to attack and throw numbers forward against the Black & Gold.

The hosts accomplished this by defending with eight players and leaving only two attackers up top. By locking down the defensive end, Nashville invited pressure onto the backline and drew the Crew out.

The more Nashville dropped back, the more Columbus wanted to get numbers forward to find overloads. It was at these moments that the Black & Gold would be the most vulnerable on the back end, with Sean Zawadzki typically being the only defender deep.

The deep backline would stopgap any type of approach from the Crew, then when the ball was turned over the emphasis was on the first pass out. One easy way to bypass Columbus’ repress is to play a quick long-ball over the top to the attack, which is exactly what Nashville decided to do.

At the first whiff of a turnover in play, Sam Surridge and Hany Mukhtar drifted wide onto opposite ends of the field. Both attackers then became options for quick long-balls out of the back to trigger the counter.

With Zawadzki only back to stop any counter chance, Nashville had a two vs. one chance if they could get the ball out fast enough. Many times they did, charging at an out-of-depth Zawadzki and attempting to outrun Steven Moreira and Yevhen Cheberko who were recovering.

If Zawadzki took the ballcarrier away, the backside passes to Mukhtar or another trailing Nashville player would be open. If Zawadzki dropped off, he would just delay the problem until the attack was closer to Patrick Schulte’s goalmouth.

Nashville was incredibly smart at taking a tenet of the Black & Gold’s philosophy – finding numerical overloads – and applying it to their own gameplan. The Crew want to commit nine players into the attack? That is fine for Nashville, they just countered the undermanned backline with two attackers to create an overload of their own.

In the end, Columbus simply had no answers. Nashville ran riot for most of the night, netting three goals and sending the Black & Gold home with nothing to show for.

Columbus’ shortcomings

On both ends of the pitch, this game was a disaster for the Crew. The defense could only be described as “Swiss cheese” after conceding in the opening two minutes for the second straight game, this time courtesy of Zawadzki’s chest. Offensively, there was no real bright spot outside of a few chances that were blocked by the Nashville defense.

Columbus has a history of games like this so far this season. One day, the Black & Gold will muster a comeback from 2-0 down against Cincinnati, but the next they can look pedestrian on offense and completely inept on defense.

To give credit where credit is due, Nashville came into this game with a clear gameplan and a track record in the top half of the East, but the Crew are better than a 3-0 scoreline.

The biggest and most glaring problem from Columbus was the sloppiness and complacency. Easy passes, touches and shooting opportunities looked impossible when a player in Black & Gold was attempting it. Chances to turn into space and open the game up were bypassed for dropped passes and negative movement.

Easy mistakes like that engrain an almost lazy mentality in a team for a game. Everyone is looking around for someone to be the spark, but the spark never came.

Along with the sloppy mistakes was an attack that missed the biggest opening Nashville gave up, the wide channels. The hosts defended with a narrow midfield three (or four sometimes), but Darlington Nagbe and Amar Sejdic were content to stay central. Often times this season we have seen the Crew’s midfielders drift wide as a temporary half-pivot to connect the backline to the higher wingbacks, but that never happened in this game.

That small change could have helped Columbus build around that narrow midfield or pull those midfielders wide so Diego Rossi and Daniel Gazdag could drop into that vacated space. Unfortunately for the Black & Gold, that small switch never happened.

Wednesday night in Nashville was the perfect storm of a midweek match, a sloppy performance and an opponent having a stellar gameplan to sink the Crew. Columbus still is in the top sector of the Eastern Conference, but they will not want a repeat of this performance anytime soon.