Crew 2022 Roster Thread

Discussion in 'Columbus Crew' started by Minnman, Feb 26, 2022.

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  1. Kyle Crew

    Kyle Crew Member+

    Feb 23, 2013
    Columbus, Ohio
    Club:
    Columbus Crew
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Who cares what it is. Courtois is doing far superior work relative to his situation than Porter is.

    And again, Noonan never coach before, Cherundolo barely coach, how they doing in MLS?

    You’re stuck on this idea that MLS Next Pro ain’t all that. No shit, no youth league is as good as the senior counterpart, yet tons of youth coaches get promoted to senior jobs all the time. You need to clear that mental hurdle, it applies to every league in the entire world. MLS ain’t special.
     
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  2. TRUJDUB21

    TRUJDUB21 Member+

    Columbus Crew
    United States
    Sep 28, 2021
    Saying the roster glaring needs is a bigger problem than bad coaching doesn’t make me a apologist. We all just want the Crew to win and be dominate that’s what Bez & Porter said. I find it funny how Bez gets a free pass from so many and Porter gets the most blame.
    I’m indifferent on Porter. I’m not a fan or a hater. He has to me done a average job this season he isn’t getting the most out of the players not named LZ & Cucho. I hate how he did Zardes and I don’t like throwing Yeboah under the bus publicly. I hate how bad we are on set pieces. But in every aspect of players & performance go hand in hand with the GM. They are failing together and i didn’t like this roster from day 1 . I do think despite thst we should have enough to make the playoffs. If the players don’t like Porter then i hope they get him out. If they do like Porter than if we make the playoffs with this roster I would not fire him.
     
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  3. KCbus

    KCbus Moderator
    Staff Member

    United States
    Nov 26, 2000
    Reynoldsburg, OH
    Club:
    Columbus Crew
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    MLS Next Pro isn't just a youth league. It's a youth league IN ITS FIRST YEAR OF EXISTENCE. You need to clear THAT mental hurdle. Taking a chance on a coach from a lower level is a question mark. I'm making the point that this one is an even bigger question mark.
     
  4. FootyHooligan32

    Columbus Crew
    United States
    Aug 26, 2022
    Here’s the problem we’re having. You’re talking about stats and about how they won’t translate and we’re talking about the stuff you see watching them play. They could have lost every game last season it wouldn’t matter. Crew 2 have a style of play that is entertaining and energetic that I want to see incorporated into the first team. The problem is you think I’m saying “oh he had this record with Crew 2. That means he could have similar stats with Crew 1”. Obviously you can’t compare the two leagues.

    There are specific, identifiable features of Courtois’ tactics that you can find in other successful teams around the league and world. No one’s saying that just because he did well in MLS Next Pro, he must be a good coach. No, we’re looking at the things that his team does and are saying that those things like quick counterattacking and 1-2 passing and give and gos are things that can translate to an MLS team.
     
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  5. FootyHooligan32

    Columbus Crew
    United States
    Aug 26, 2022
    I want to clarify what I mean by this because it’s ripe for misinterpretation. The results and stats literally do not matter. If Jurgen Klopp coached an MLS Next Pro team, they would lose every game because a youth team is not gonna have the talent level to execute his plan. They would get tired out after 10 minutes and lose. Does that mean Klopp is a bad coach? No, because you can see they way they are trying to play and imagine how a better team would execute it. With Crew 2, you have to look at the game and say hey an MLS team playing like that might do well.
     
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  6. Minnman

    Minnman Member+

    Feb 11, 2000
    Columbus, OH, USA
    Club:
    Columbus Crew
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    How is Courtois doing ‘far superior work relative to his situation’? Dave Kerr has noted that Crew 2 probably has an older, more experienced roster this year in MLS Next Pro than other teams, in part because our academy teams have lagged behind many other mls teams. I’m not being critical of Courtois, only noting that mls next pro teams are, in this initial season, very uneven in their talent. It seems as your Crew 2 just has a ‘better’ roster than other teams. In quotes because as has been said innumerable times, wins and losses in next pro don’t mean shit. All that matters is developing young talent for the senior team.

    Anyway, seems to me that a Courtois is doing a very good job with a very good, maybe even a superior roster. So good for him. But it’s meaningless in terms of how well he’d perform in mls.
     
  7. FootyHooligan32

    Columbus Crew
    United States
    Aug 26, 2022
    Clearly, the only solution here is to have Porter and Courtois switch places for a game and then we’ll have our answer.

    also, can we acknowledge that Courtois was the man of the match for the last game? I mean that’s pretty irrefutable. If you get the man of the match, you’re the most important person to the team no doubt.
     
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  8. kgilbert78

    kgilbert78 Member+

    Borussia Mönchengladbach
    United States
    Dec 28, 2006
    Cowlumbus, OH
    Club:
    Borussia Mönchengladbach
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Well, 'Dolo did have a number of years of experience as an assistant in the BL--and has the UEFA Pro license.
     
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  9. Kyle Crew

    Kyle Crew Member+

    Feb 23, 2013
    Columbus, Ohio
    Club:
    Columbus Crew
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Taking a coach from any level is a question mark.

    Funny how you keep avoiding the Noonan and Cherundolo points, about how they basically came from the academy ranks.

    Or Wilfred Nancy in Montreal.

    Or Oscar Pareja in Dallas.

    Or Luchi Ginzalez in Dallas.

    Or Nico Esteves in Dallas.

    Or Greg Vanney in Toronto.

    Or Jim Curtin in Philadelphia.
     
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  10. Kyle Crew

    Kyle Crew Member+

    Feb 23, 2013
    Columbus, Ohio
    Club:
    Columbus Crew
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Having good players doesn’t necessarily mean you have a good team, or that the coach knows how to piece it together. Are you saying literally anyone would have gotten these results.
     
  11. Bill Archer

    Bill Archer BigSoccer Supporter

    Mar 19, 2002
    Washington, NC
    Club:
    Columbus Crew
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    #1511 Bill Archer, Sep 21, 2022
    Last edited: Sep 21, 2022
    I think most of those coaches listed above spent at least a little time as an MLS assistant, in some cases doing double duty as the academy/reserve coach.

    But the overall point is correct; there are so many cases of coaches coming from any imaginable level and/or job and being successful that it's hardly worth trying to quantify. Conversely, big time star players in their first job ever fail dismally about as often as guys who've been sitting on a bench. ext to an HC for 20 years.

    It's a crap shoot. Always. Hell, you want a proven winner, there's a guy sitting on the bench next to Noonan in Cincy who has been the head coach for four Cup winning teams. Can't get a head job.

    Sigi Schmid got fired from his last job.

    The job is so different from team to team. Cherundolos job is to balance egos and help them find ways to cooperate. Curtins job is to find ways to get low price players to win games. Wolff's job is to build an entire team around one terrific player.

    Can you shuffle the deck and ha e them all be successful in a different scenario? I sure as hell don't know and neither does anyone else.

    What I can say is that if you think maybe you have a budding piece of coaching talent and a head coach who is a dead man walking, you risk literally nothing to slap the dreaded interim tag on the young guy for a few games and see how the players respond.

    One thing is for sure: the suddenly voracious demand for coaches in the US can only mean that sooner or later somebody else is going to offer the guy a job. If they'll come for Eric Freakin Quill, how far behind can Courtois be?
     
  12. LaMacchia

    LaMacchia Member+

    Jul 12, 2008
    Club:
    Columbus Crew
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I like you.
     
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  13. catfish9

    catfish9 Member+

    Jul 14, 2011
    Club:
    Columbus Crew
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    So who would suggest would be a good sub to close out a game and keep other team from scoring? Are you of opinion we have the bench depth?
     
  14. catfish9

    catfish9 Member+

    Jul 14, 2011
    Club:
    Columbus Crew
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Let's not forget his multiple missed sitters this season. seriously if he alone were just 10% better, this team would be in a much much better position. That's not putting any blame on him whatsoever. It's just that in order to be elite team you need all 11 guys firing on all cylinders...all the time. We get it for 85-89 minutes. He's a good example. Room is another. For as many great saves he has made to keep us in games, he also has not made the great save when we needed it most...to close out the game.
     
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  15. west ham sandwich

    Feb 26, 2007
    C-bus
    Club:
    Columbus Crew
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    #1515 west ham sandwich, Sep 21, 2022
    Last edited: Sep 21, 2022
    It's not about widening his run.
    Offside is now only called when the player plays the ball. If he makes the run and the ball is played late he should pull up, not play the ball, and allow the ball to carry (and hopefully allow a teammate who was not in an offside position to press).

    That doesn't absolve the passers from taking too long to make the pass (if that is, in fact, what is happening)
     
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  16. Minnman

    Minnman Member+

    Feb 11, 2000
    Columbus, OH, USA
    Club:
    Columbus Crew
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    But it's a helluva lot easier to have a good team, when you have comparatively good players. I've watched virtually no Crew 2 soccer this season. Mostly just highlights. Is it your opinion that Courtois has been exceptionally good at getting the players he's been given to play above their talent level? That this roster is pretty damned good and they're beating a lot of inferior teams based on a talent gap? Or that the Crew 2 coach and players both seem above average for MLS Next Pro, and what we've seen this inaugural season is probably a combination of those factors?

    No, I'm not saying that any stiff could have gotten the results that Courtois has gotten. But I am hypothesizing that he hasn't necessarily worked wonders with what could well be a pretty damned solid roster. Beyond that, I'm saying that coaching one of the very best teams in the first year of a youth development league doesn't necessarily make you qualified to coach in MLS. What Courtois has managed to do in MLS Next Pro is structurally wildly different from what he'd have to do in MLS. It just is.

    I certainly do not dislike Courtois. I particularly like his very long professional career. Not as some superstar, but as a solid professional who earned a long career playing in various European leagues. I'd also be totally cool with he being named interim head coach of Porter is sacked. Though that has as much to do with the sorry state of our Crew 1 coaching staff than seeing Courtois as someone who's earned a shot at an MLS coaching gig.

    As is sometimes the case with those interim appointments, if the players respond to the guy who's received a battlefield promotion, the interim title goes away. Maybe that would be the case with Courtois. Who knows? But if it isn't, it's hardly the end to his coaching career. It's beyond debatable that he's done very well in MLS Next Pro, and you'd think that performance would pretty soon get him some other offers. I just think that could be a USL Championship head coaching job or an MLS assistant coaching position first, before we see his name considered for MLS head coaching jobs.
     
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  17. west ham sandwich

    Feb 26, 2007
    C-bus
    Club:
    Columbus Crew
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Problem is that we're past the point of no return.

    If we wanted to see what Courtois could do, we needed to cut bait 5+ games ago and give him a chance to try to implement. If the Crew fall short of the playoffs and HSG decides to make a change in the post season, Courtois probably isn't getting the opportunity.
     
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  18. zman31

    zman31 Member+

    May 5, 1999
    Columbus, OH
    Club:
    Columbus Crew
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Yeah, that's kind of the rub. Lots of moments during the season when we could have cut bait, slapped the interim tag on Courtois and proceeded to find out if he has the skills needed to be our next manager. Now? I doubt he'd get more than a cursory look while they can expand the search to the vast open market (that is if they actually fire Porter at the end of the season).

    It's a shame when looking around the league and seeing guys like Wolff and Noonan that had ties here succeed elsewhere. If Courtois continues to have success with Crew 2 some team will give him a shot at being an MLS head coach and I'd hate to lose him because we dragged our feet. Will he wait 3 or more years to get a shot with Columbus if SKC or some such comes calling next June?

    While no coach is a slam dunk to succeed in our oddly structured league, even the most venerated Euro based icons, Courtois is more than qualified for the job. Being able to give him a lower stakes run out for 15 games would have been ideal in my opinion. That ship has sailed, unfortunately.
     
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  19. Kyle Crew

    Kyle Crew Member+

    Feb 23, 2013
    Columbus, Ohio
    Club:
    Columbus Crew
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    This probably belongs in the fire porter thread, but since we’re talking about it here…

    The real question is this: do we fire porter during the offseason or extend him?

    He only has one year left on his deal. If the club isn’t happy and wants a change, going into next season with him as coach is not just dumb, it’s negligent and counterproductive.

    If the club wants him to stay, they either are going to wait and see what happens during the season and have to deal with endless questions and speculation about his job status, or extend him in the offseason/preseason so that everyone knows he’s the long term boss still.

    I see no way in which he’s extended, barring another championship. So, if he isn’t gonna be renewed, he should be fired.

    Will Bez or the Haslams or whoever have the stomach for that? Don’t know.
     
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  20. Rylar

    Rylar Member

    Jan 20, 2008
    ok with all the talk about how bad/poorly managed the team is... what would you do with what we currently have on the roster? how would you change the style of play? It's so easy to say they should just kick the ball and score.. I'd like to hear your responses to this and be specific
     
  21. FootyHooligan32

    Columbus Crew
    United States
    Aug 26, 2022
    The issues with Porter’s system have been well documented, but a few of the major problems are:

    1. They play way to slow and lethargic. They take to many touches on the ball before passing, which allows the defense to close down the space. Ettienne is the biggest perpetrator of this. Whenever he gets the ball on the wing, he waits until the defender gets right up to him and then just takes the ball off him. Either that or he tries a pass that gets cleared by the first man. A better coach could definitely help him to make a decision quicker in the those moments.

    1. They don’t take enough shots. Porter wants them to play way too conservatively and hold the ball at all costs. That’s one of the reasons I think our xG is so high in some games. They have so much possession in the box but it’s useless possession. It’s just Lucas surrounded by 5 guys while holding the ball at his feet until he gets taken out. It’s just a waste. The team needs to not be afraid to take shots and win corners or hope for lucky deflections/rebounds. The way they are now, it’s like a basketball team passing the ball around the perimeter looking for a higher percentage shot until the shot clock runs out and the possession is over. It’s just wasteful.

    3. Getting Nagbe to run forward. He plays way too conservatively in possession, but a couple of times this year, he decided to make runs forward all game and it was great. A better coach might be able to get him to activate that part of his game more often.
     
  22. Paul171121

    Paul171121 Member+

    Columbus Crew
    United States
    Dec 14, 2018
    Based on his tactical analysis on twitter and my time watching Crew 2, I don't doubt his tactical knowledge and skills; the issue would be the buy in from this roster. The tactics on offense (quick movement and passes in an organized manner) and on defense (good, organized pressing and players knowing their assignments) is quite exciting, modern, and fits the current MLS style. He emphasizes the triangular movement of players and the ball, which I have not seen with Crew 1. This relieves the pressure on individuals and creates scoring opportunites for everyone. The team's style, not individual players, makes it fun to watch.

    With the Crew 1 roster, there will be a buy in issue, which could have been examined during an interim period. While some players would benefit from his style (Diaz, Yaw, Morris, and probably Cucho), others (Nagbe and Etienne) would have trouble adjusting unless their lethargy on the ball is just a byproduct of porter's poor coaching. Unlike Crew 2, Crew 1 relies on individual play instead of decent performances from players in a well developed system. For Crew 1 it often feels like it's Lucas Zelerayan Time - Lucas Zelerayan.

    In all, Courtois makes watching soccer in Columbus fun, while Porter makes me angry because I'm watching a talented roster (aside from LW and CB) go to waste. I'm excited to see Crew 2 this weekend, but the Cleveland sports fan in me expects a shock loss.
     
  23. LaMacchia

    LaMacchia Member+

    Jul 12, 2008
    Club:
    Columbus Crew
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Stop with cycling the attack through the centerbacks, for one.
    Get either (preferably both) of the center mids to look upfield as a first option, for two.
    Third: Tell Cucho and Lucas they don't need to play hero ball, and convince the rest of the team of this as well.
    Last, and most importantly: Win back the locker room.
     
  24. David Kerr

    David Kerr Member+

    United States
    Oct 18, 2019
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Knowing Laurent and working with him he’s done a very good job with this team. They played the teams in front of them and won the matches. From a coaching perspective, Laurent did everything you could ask of him

    Now as mentioned earlier, yes Laurent did his job and did it very well, but Crew 2 have the second oldest and most experienced team in the league. That matters at this age, it’s why so many MLS 2 teams struggled in USL, their players are no doubt quality prospects, but when played against older, bigger, and more experienced players they still get whacked every game. When most teams are playing 03-05’s, we have 22-26 year olds out there. The decision making and maturity of our players is on a different level compared to most teams we play. But without proper coaching, even with the tools Crew 2 had, results aren’t guaranteed. So Laurent used his tools well and performed his role well

    For Crew 2 you have to note how the team performed with Mo Farsi & Jacen Russell Rowe and without them. With those two, Crew 2 was practically unbeatable, those two are first team quality players and showed it by routinely dominating the level every match. Without those two, the team struggled with chance creation, now granted you take your top two players off the team that’s always going to be hard, same as if the first team was missing Cucho or Lucas. At times without Mo & JRR the team really struggled, particularly with chance creation in the final third, they always dominated possession which is ideal

    Where Laurent succeeded the most with this group was the development of his essentially DP’s. Both JRR and Mo Farsi are undoubtedly first team level players now who could impact MLS. They weren’t at the start of the season. That is a very positive reflection on Laurent. Laurent obviously produced on the stat sheet, another very positive reflection on him. Both attributed to him deservedly winning coach of the year. Next season I hope the success continues, but with much more involvement from the academy players. Guys like Cole Mrowka, Caleb Borneo, Jack Lindimore, Ty Nero, Taha Habroune, Gio De Libera, and Stas Lapkes are ready for this level. If he can successfully integrate them and get results with these players, then for he’ll be performing at an A++ level as our coach. Currently he gets an A for me

    Now should Laurent be considered for the first team? That I’m not sure of and not qualified enough to say. I do wonder how our first team would do build around the methodology and his principles of play with the 3-4-3. Personally I prefer a lone 6/dual 8’s 4-3-3 possession style to the 3-4-3 but there are pro’s and con’s to both, Laurent used the 3-4-3 very well this season and props to him.

    At the rate Laurent’s going I do think he will be an MLS coach
     
  25. chr1st

    chr1st Member+

    Jan 19, 2011
    Dayton
    Club:
    Columbus Crew
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Guys, our late-game woes have been solved; Porter had a "nearly hour-long meeting" with the players to talk it out.

    "The Crew coach expressed his frustration after the 1-1 tie against Portland, detailing the different tactical adjustments he'd made in each of the three games, only for his team to get the same result again. Adding insult to injury after the Timbers draw was a win by Inter Miami later that afternoon that pushed Columbus below the playoff line for the first time in several weeks.

    Last week, over a nearly hour-long meeting, Porter and his players talked openly about their inability to close out games and what they need to do in the final three games of the season if they want to make the playoffs."
    Full article here: https://www.dispatch.com/story/spor...eting-after-portland-timbers-tie/69522745007/
     

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