Crew SC Report Card

Columbus appear to be shaking off their slow start. Well, on the table at least. Even with two wins in a row, their overall play has been poor. Last week, Crew SC beat a (what's turning out to be) miserable team in NYCFC - and this week couldn't break down a 10 man (and another miserable) Houston Dynamo. Both games at home.

Let's take a quick look at player ratings by our friends at whoscored.com and add some notes.

So, what's going on? It starts with Kei Kamara. He's still a top player, but what he did last year is not repeatable. Trying to pump the ball into the box over and over will not get you the same results, even if everyone else in form (which they are not).

Harrison Afful and Ethan Finlay are chewing up a lot of real estate on the right side and not a whole lot is coming from it. Do they communicate? They don't really look like they are on the same page. We also see Meram drifting all over the place on the left side. Waylon Francis, however, is more disciplined than Afful and it allows for players ahead of him to get creative.

Next week Columbus travels to (pretty bad) Seattle. I wouldn't be surprised if we finally see a few changes to the lineup this week or next. It's just a matter of if Gregg Berhalter thinks these guys will snap out of if or not.

I'm leaning towards not, and a change would be healthy. Particularly, if Columbus got a good result against a weak Sounders. Some of these guys on the bench are rotting away and need a boost. Critical if they want to not slip into a late season hole.