This Coach’s Bizarre Tactics are Breaking MLS 

How do you think other MLS teams will adapt to counter the unconventional tactics used by Columbus Crew under Wilfried Nancy?

Hey was my coach when I was 15 years old, 17 years ago. This guy is really charismatic, you want to make him proud. He has that big brother vibe to him.

Montreal has a completely different roster this year, we sold Milhalovic, Johnston, Kone, Torres and Kamara (and now miller). The owner is farming young talent and selling them without replacing them. We also lost Nancy because the owner wasn't minding his business and got into a fight with Nancy. Nancy is a big reason of our success last year, I truly believe he is the best coach in MLS right now. But the reason Montreal is playing so poorly is the owner

7 months later, his team are the champions of America. It couldn’t have happened to a more lovable coach. Reminds me of arsene wenger the way he talks about the game

Looks like you identified the winning formula! Columbus had a wild tactical sense this year. “Our positioning may allow you to get an easy goal, but it’ll allow us to get two”

This aged very well 🏆

Is artificial counter attacking the new football Meta? The idea of inspiring confidence along with that concept makes me draw parallels with de zerbi’s Brighton. This guy seems like an amazing coach.

Columbus entire 2022 season was like an audition for Caleb Porter's replacement. Many teams took points away from us late in games but Montreal with Nancy did it twice.

Watching this after The Crew won the MLS Cup (for the 3rd time!). Good call.

The switch of play style is how Conte had early success with Tottenham, with Kane playing deep in midfield and Son and Kulusevski playing as wide receivers who drove at defences to score or squared back into the box to assist the goal. How Tottenham imploded under Conte is still surprising to me. The style is extremely effective against teams that love to attack or press high with numbers. Liverpool and Man City were famous victims of Tottenham. Leeds under Marcelo Bielsa were also guilty of mass attacks and equally suffered against Tottenham.

This style of play is really similar, if not identical, to the signature style of the brasilian coach Fernando Diniz, not only the strategy in the pitch, but also the philosophy of relationship with the players

Love how you mention empathy. Sports Psychology is important to recognize

Your videos are always fascinating! It's 2am in the UK here and Im sat watching you analyse an American manager Ive never heard about and I'm enthralled! I feel your break down put's his style similar to Eddie Howe at Newcastle United but then again I'm no expert, unlike your good self. Keep up the good work, you have a lovely relaxing style and manner!

Fantastic video. There’s not enough high quality 3rd party MLS content and this right here was amazing. Keep up the good work! Subscribed!

this was a great video! very informative and loved how you delivered it. seriously good work and thank you

Great video. Nancy has made it fun to watch The Crew again!

First year Columbus Crew season ticket holder - love hearing the strategy and tactics! Go Crew!

The turnaround from Porter to Nancy has been stunning and I'm here for it

The reason why I love your channel is because we think so much alike. Wilfred Nancy is an incredible Manager and needs to be praised for what he is doing. The Crew stunk up the league last season now with him leading the team they are looking incredible playing fantastic futbol. For those in charge of US SOCCER this man is one of my top candidates for the National Team job. Great video

You can see Nacy's strategy in the stat lines, dominating possession and shots even in losing matches. There are a few top managers running almost identical formations and tactics to Nancy, dominating top flight leagues.

Awesome vid! I didn't know Wilfried Nancy, and now I'm excited about the Crew and looking forward to watching them play football! KUTGJ! Cheers

Really insightful and elegantly conveyed. Excellent job

Favorite coach wish there was more out there about him. Thanks

ok. first time i am looking at video about MLS analysis. good job

Very good video, following :) Also will be keeping an eye on Columbus starting now, interesting football they're playing

As a Columbus fan, it's really exciting knowing they can put up a couple goals, but very nerve-racking when teams can counter really well, which we saw against Philly and New England. Nancy also seems to hold substitutes back longer than a lot of coaches

Your channel is massively underrated. I'm sure in no time you will have 100k subs

Great video - Crew fan. Your video is spot on!

Good stuff bro. Followed soccer in Kenya for a while and I like your knowledge of ball.

Great video and break down Jake, thanks. Wouldn't it be nice to see this kind of style chan with the National team? Love it!

I like that I have stumbled on your video after watching one regarding the tactics being used at Fluminense. I think the style of play is similar and the philosophy is the same. Quite interesting how fluid the game is and the freedom players have despite the obvious threat of counter attacks as you mentioned in the end. I was just used to the positional play kind of football played in Europe but it is truly a breath of fresh air to see this alternative philosophies. As a City fan, I hope to see a match between Columbus and Mancity one day to see how these tactics play off...

Thank you Nancy. From Columbus 💛🖤

Great video. You just earn a new subscriber. 💯

Brother your videos are the best soccer content on RU-vid. Full stop!

This coach sounds great! Gotta start following his career. Cool shirt, BTW.

Looking really good tonight, got that cup!

Finally somebody realising how bright this coach really is!

This is a great video, and thank you for the energy you put into it. I think the music level was a little high, as it was tough to focus on your breakdown. Maybe the levels could come up and down as you transition from one point to the next. Overall, loved the analysis

Looks like Nancy has been taking notes from De Zerbi at Brighton or Emery when at Villarreal. Both did/do the same thing. Baiting the press while using a shape that outnumbers the opposition in the defensive third, and then using quick switches or 1 touch passes to a 3rd man, typically behind the cover shadow of the baited presser. This allows them to create artificial transitions by exploiting the opposition's pressing structure.

Great video!

Nice breakdown.

Nancy has done an amazing job with Columbus so far

It looks like the 3-4-2-1 that is actually the current meta in european football. Young and experienced coaches/managers are using it, like Nagelsmann and Mourinho because of the diamonds it creates across the pitch.

Lmao. I can’t take this seriously after the first minutes claim that this years Montreal team is virtually the same as last years. They lost Mihailovic, Johnston, Kone, Kamara and Torres and now traded away Kamal Miller. Fault terrible ownership all you want, but it’s disingenuous to say this years Montreal team has close to the quality they had last year

One thing to add....watch the positioning of Moreira. He's playing as a CB and get gets forward on almost every attack, sometimes in the center of the field, sometimes out on the wing. When they have the ball, Farsi, Sands, and Moreira all get forward, leaving only 2 central defenders.

Perfect example was the MLS Cup final. For Columbus’ 2nd goal, their midfield all crowded to the right hand side of the pitch playing the ball around, and pulling the LA defense over towards it. The result was that when Amundsen hit that crossing pass to the left hand side of the LA box, there was only one defender left to beat, and the rest is history. Add to that the fact that Columbus’ possession game hardly gave LA a smell of the ball all game long, and it is clear why the Crew won the MLS Cup.

Subbed just because of the channel name.

THANK YOU FOR CALLING THEM IMPACT

That shirt looks like what should be the ideal Holland home shirt.

Please please please do an analysis of why NYCFC is doing so poorly this season! Love the content you’re providing and will look into buying the book on this video.

I really liked Nancy when he was with Montréal, he has a very high coaching IQ and helps player get better. Unfortunetly he had a beef with the owner of CF Montréal and demanded to move away from the team. I'm glad he stayed in MLS because he raises the level of play and tactic in MLS. I wish him good luck in Columbus, except against Montréal!

Good Video, but could you lower the music just a touch next time?

a very close way which i personally would set up a tactic for a team id coach

same tactics Brighton are using in the premier league. freedom bravery and humility.

I think one thing that will benefit Nancy with the crew is the maturity of the back line compared to that of Montreal’s last season. Montreal had far too many gamblers, goalkeeper included who costed games by making rogue tackles and overcommitting in space…I don’t think this will be too much of a problem with the crew.

His tactics are working well, top 5 in the league and almost definitely gonna be a playoff contender

Montreal did everything they could to keep Nancy but he wanted out ever since a mid-season bust-up with Saputo when the latter stormed the locker room following a loss.

Seems like Nancy has a contrasting style to Carnell in St. Louis. It would be an interesting contrasting of styles. Hopefully we see it in the playoffs.

I wonder if field hockey had any influence on Nancy's tactics. A lot of those concepts, particularly the slow play trying to bait the press out of position, were reminiscent to me of what you'd see in any top level field hockey game nowadays

Great video! The background music could be a tad bit quieter though.

One thing the MLS has lacked are these top tier coaches, outside of guys like Schmetzer & Arena. Guys like Nancy, Cherundolo, Carnell are leading this new wave and are unsurprisingly dominating. I'm just happy one of them coaches my team haha

Interesting you mentioned side-to-side because Nancy can occasionally be heard yelling "SIDE TO SIDE" during stints of possession.

Knock Knock Who's there? Orange Orange who? Orange you going to change that shirt? Have you considered doing anything on Hoffenheim and their recent good form in the Bundesliga? I'm a fan of the coach and a CB there. Thanks Jake! Good stuff as usual!

Counterpoint: that is a soccer shirt if you're Forever Orange in H-Town, vamos! 🤘🏻🍊📈

The Nancy’s condensing of the pitch is just like Nagelsman’s ideology of relative width at Bayern

Dnq football mention the curacao mnt in a video, but they got replaced by bermuda for the fifa series.

Nothing more like how Erik ten hag makes a game plan and manages his team...

Nancy is a world class manager in a league that hasn't yet been able to fairly praise his talent. I hope he finds the success he deserves at Colombus Crew.

😊go crew!

Great video! Subbed!

As a Columbus Crew fan I'm kinda at an impass. I like the goals but I'm a bit worried he is a bit dogmatic. This last game being very exemplary. How do we adjust when teams figure us out? He needs to be a bit mor flexible. Our biggest concern is in transition. We play a three man back line. This has been great for Nagbe and Morris. They are actually way more offensive than what we would expect in this formation. What's more confusing is our wingbacks sometimes go way forward or pinch way in on the back side. It's worrying. Now now. Let me talk about the bright side. We are the anti Berhalter. The wings for us end up creating space in the middle. This confuses teams. On the counter we really struggle. In my opinion I have changed so far. This is actually fun soccer. I hope we can put Ohio soccer on the map again and win a Cup with him. Still questioning though.

I wonder what his tactics would like like in FM24 or FC24

Great work, although Montreal has turned over a lot of key players since last season… obviously Montreal’s owner Saputo is a big issue as he’s never been a patient owner and his focus is at his Serie A club. You should ask MLS for your own show on Season Pass lol. I think a big gap is a lack of a tactical show… Their Extratime show is more about MLS personalities, players and transfers (aka Is Greg Vanney or Bob Bradley going to get fired? Or when is Almada leaving MLS? Why isn’t Josef Martinez not scoring goals?). Not much on what teams are trying to do on the field.

Same roster than last year? Errr... minus Mihailovic, Koné, Johnston, Kamara, Torres, but also the ton of injuries (Piette, Campbell, Quioto, Toye, Vilsaint, Lassi, Miljevic...). That being said, we are abysmally bad, even considering all this. What's happening on the field is nothing less than vomit-inducing.

Great video, you should lower the volume of the music or play something a little more chill though it’s just a little bit distracting

I was eager to start that video since I am from Montreal and deeply regret what lead to Nancy's departure but I had to stop your video right away because your premise is false. We lost our core players. Which ones? ALL OF THEM! Happy for Columbus for getting this amazing coach/man.

The concept of playing attractive football for the fans is reminiscent of Brian Clough

We him miss so badly in Montréal....

"Impossible is an opinion"

I agree with the above. There were huge roster changes. Nothing in this video makes sense after that.

Very similar tactic style to frank Lampard’s early Chelsea sides

Montreal here. I'm so mad at the owner and management. I went to games often in the past, I spent hard-earned money on the team. It won't happen this year!

Weird to see my local team on RU-vid as a miracle team

MLS football is improving all the time.

The thumbnail looks like RDJ in Tropic Thunder

"The artificial counter attack".. do you by any chance watch Brighton in the EPL?...they try to do the same thing

Make a video on Orlando City🎉

You get that shirt at Target?

when are we gonna get at video on St. Louis City SC?

MTL owner Saputo (dairy products) has reduced $ spending - he owns Bologna in Italie where his interest lie.

when I read the name of this channel, "I see they woke up and chose violence"

How do you think he would do in the English Premier League? Jesse Marsch did okay, but was fired in a fairly short period of time.

Great vid!

Actually, I'm a lot more impressed with Steve Cherundolo and how he shaped up LAFC after Bob's departure. He made LAFC into an unstoppable machine.

It's called Football, hence the name of the beautiful game

Not to jump on Nancy, he was a good coach for Montreal, especially with young talent, but a month later, CF Montreal finally acquired a couple of players, and didn't allowed a single a single goal at home, including Cup play, since the DC United game in mid-april, which was almost TWO MONTHS AGO, posting 7 straight shutouts at home (Red Bulls, Orlando, TFCx2, Forge, Miami, and Minnesota) - which mean 674 minutes + extra time without a goal allowed and are climbing back in the standings, now in the playoffs picture...so I kinda think it was a roster and mentality issue there. That said, Nancy's soccer is pretty attractive to watch however.

Sounds like a good analysis, except that stating the group is the same as last year is wrong. We lost(?), let go (?), sold (?) Mihailovic, Kone, Kamara, Johnston, Torres, and now Miller. I don't what WN could have done with such a calamitous recruitment strategy...

Austin FC could use whatever Crew's got going on. Semi finals last year, this year haven't scored in 350+ minutes. It's getting aggravating and you can see it in the players.

just some constructive criticism, the music is really loud at times and kinda distracting from what you're talking about, try lowering it a bit! But great video.

I hope he becomes Canada national team Head coach