Sunday, May 22, 2016

Crew Look Average



The chart above shows rolling 10 game points per game averages in three-year chunks.

Light Gray Line - 2008, 2009, 2010 (Sigi Schmid, Robert Warzycha)
Yellow Line - 2011, 2012, 2013 (Robert Warzycha)
Black Line - 2014, 2015, 2016 (Gregg Berhalter)

Interesting that Berhalter has played so many more games in three seasons. Playoffs and regular season scheduling changes have caused that. Another call out is the pattern that appears. Or rhythm of sorts. You can tell when the team makes a push (or pull). Robert Warzycha had three notable push/pulls. One at the end of 2010. Another after he signed a new contract in summer of 2011 and, a positive one, when Crew signed Federico Higuain and Jairo Arrieta (late 2012).

Berhalter's teams have a habit of going on extended poor runs. MLS allows for that via forgiving competition rules. It sucks for fans, though.

Anyhow, this year's team is smack in one awful run right now. Last two draws were seen as victories for this team. Not a good place to be. This roster got a lot worse when they shipped off Kei Kamara. It's not just his goals that will be missed, it's the whole style of play that Columbus now has to rework now that they are just crossing it into him. Not something easily done in the middle of a season.

The team we saw play Toronto last night is a very average MLS team and not one that can go on a 10 pts in the next five type of run - which is the type of run they will need just to get back into the postseason picture.

Key things missing (by "key," I mean fundamental) to make that happen are as follows:

1. Depth
2. Identity
3. Team Chemistry

Depth is up there because Columbus has hollowed out the bench by not playing them much last few years as well has not having any sort of reserve league to keep them fresh. Identity might be something they can pick up in the back half of the season but not if the chemistry isn't there.

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