The Columbus Crew had a week of highs and lows, losing 2-1 at home to a heavily rotated NYCFC squad before returning on the weekend to defeat FC Cincinnati 2-1. The woes and rustiness of Wednesday put a damper on fans’ moods heading into the Hell Is Real matchup against the Black & Gold’s in-state rivals, but Columbus was able to show fight and determination to come out with all three points.

Daniel Gazdag seemed to be the man of the week, netting two goals across both games while Taha Habroune and Jamal Thiare had strong attacking performances as well. The offensive development from the midweek match to the weekend must have interim head coach Laurent Courtois pleased, with the Crew needing to make a run in the coming weeks to get back into the playoff picture.

Upon a return to MLS action after the World Cup break, let’s dive into all the tactics that defined Columbus during this up and down week.

Shaking off the rust against NYCFC

Coming off the World Cup break, the Black & Gold needed a win over NYCFC to get off to a flying start to MLS league action. At home, against a visiting team who had a number of pieces missing due to injury seemed like a slam dunk to grab all three points. Unfortunately, the home fans did not see this prediction fulfilled.

NYCFC came out and surprised the Crew by being on the front foot defensively. The visitors allowed Columbus to have the ball but installed a high press with five players. On goal kicks particularly, NYCFC waited on the edge of the box until the ball would be played and crash in on the Black & Gold defenders.

The simple fact is, the Crew did not deal with the press well. Even worst, NYCFC was not doing anything particularly special or unique in their approach. New York’s attack simply man marked Columbus’ backline and forced turnovers and bad passes over and over again.

One of the main issues for the Black & Gold was actually self-inflicted. Under former head coach Henrik Ryström, the Crew underwent a shape change to be fit more into a 4-4-2. Now under Courtois, Columbus is reverting back to Wilfried Nancy’s 5-2-3/3-4-3 shape with wingbacks.

In this game, however, the Black & Gold were caught between two mindsets. During midfield possession and high pressing instances, the Crew often found themselves in a 4-2-4 shape with Max Arfsten playing left midfield and Malte Amundsen at left back. Mo Farsi took the right back spot, with Sean Zawadzki and Rudy Camacho inside of him.

The simple fact was that Columbus was not accustomed to playing in a Nancy/Courtois style system in a formation that did not have true wingbacks. There were many times the Black & Gold looked stagnant, out of ideas and simply bland from back to front, and for that, NYCFC made them pay to the tune of two goals conceded and three points lost.

When the Crew brought on some pieces off the bench and began to shift more into the old 3-4-3 look, there were actually a few chances. Steven Moreira and Gazdag provided a sizable spark, but in the end, there was not enough time left as Columbus fell 2-1.

Fans may chalk this one up to rustiness, a rotated lineup or other factors, but the most worrying thing in this matchup was the Black & Gold’s effort. Many times, it felt as if the Crew were stuck in slow motion or simply did not want to do the due diligence and go the extra mile – on both ends. That complacency paired with the factors of coming off a break and a poor team shape gave NYCFC all the chances they needed to take the victory.

Back to the future in Hell Is Real

Come Saturday, Columbus kicked it into a new gear with FC Cincinnati coming to town. The mistakes of Wednesday seemed to resurface early on when Kevin Denkey scored in under ten minutes due to a duffed clearance by Farsi, but from there it was a return to Black & Gold teams of old against the visitors.

One of the biggest things the Crew figured out from that game against NYCFC was how to interchange formations based on the situation. On Wednesday, there was a lack of effort in terms of making sure each formational shape in different phases of the game was intact. Against Cincinnati, the Black & Gold course corrected.

Regarding formations depending on phases of the game, the Crew started in a base 4-4-2. Zawadzki slotted in at left back with Camacho, Moreira and Farsi beside him. Arfsten, Sekou Bangoura, Dylan Chambost and Habroune rounded out the midfield with a strike partnership of Gazdag and Thiare.

On defense, Gazdag dropped into the midfield to form a 4-5-1 that would become a 5-4-1 in deep defending situations with Arfsten becoming a wingback. Arfsten not tracking back on Wednesday to stop crosses is what caused a lot of the issues NYCFC posed, but against Cincinnati he did a much better job at helping out Zawadzki on that left side.

On offense, Columbus took on many shapes. In deep possession movements, the Black & Gold started in a 4-4-1-1 that would quickly change when the Crew moved higher up the pitch. Before we get into the other shapes though, we need to understand the Cincinnati press.

Lots of times when teams play Columbus, they want to match the Black & Gold’s overloads with man-marking so the Crew cannot break easily. Cincinnati did not match Columbus throughout Saturday’s game, which allowed the home side to build out of the back and find quality attacking chances easier than normal.

We can see this on the movement that led Arfsten to draw the penalty from Matt Miazga. The visitors did not have enough players on that left side to match the overload the Black & Gold tried to create, which allowed Arfsten to get in behind the defense and forced Miazga to come over and challenge.

Back to the shapes, that 4-4-1-1 morphed into a 3-4-3 when the Crew reached midfield. Farsi pushed into the midfield on the right side, moving Habroune into the fluid front three with Gazdag and Thiare. This is the shape Columbus was most comfortable in and allowed the Black & Gold to play freely with the interchanges they usually utilized over the past few years.

Despite the familiar shape, there were still a few caveats that Courtois installed. At times, Gazdag and Habroune dropped into the wide areas to push Farsi and Arfsten higher into the attack as pure wingers. This allowed the Crew to move into a high attacking 1-5-4 shape with both outside centerbacks joining the midfield and the backside pivot staying high with Thiare and both wingbacks.

Another important tweak for Columbus was the inclusion of Zawadzki on the left side of the back three. Anyone who has watched the Black & Gold in the past three years has seen that the Crew favor building up on the left side compared to the right. This has to do with the skillset of Arfsten on the left and the speed of Farsi to get up and down the pitch quicker on the right.

With Zawadzki as the left centerback, it added essentially another midfielder into the attack who can aid the buildup and make runs into the channels with Arfsten and other attackers to help overload. The simple fact is, Cincinnati did not have an answer any time the Crew decided to overload the left side of the field.

These attacking shapes netted Columbus two goals in the first half to take the lead, and from there it was a matter of keeping the lead. As subs came on in the second half, the Black and Gold continued adjusting. At one point, the Crew went to a true trio in midfield with Habroune, Tarun Karumanchi and Andre Gomes providing more defensive stability.

With all the positives from Saturday, there are still things for Courtois and the coaching staff to fix. There are times when Columbus defends with four in the back where marking is an issue and gaps can be created. Hopefully, the Black & Gold can develop some comfortability defending in those different shapes as the games go on, but that is a glaring weakness that has shown up over the past week.

All in all, it was an up and down week for the Crew. Fans will be happy with the rivalry win, but Columbus still has a lot to do to get into the playoff picture over the second half of the season.