Columbus Crew training camp: How are new players adjusting to Wilfried Nancy's system?
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - There likely will never come a point in his tenure with the Crew that coach Wilfried Nancy will stop challenging his team within his system.
Especially during the preseason.
Malte Amundsen, one of the handful of players who missed out on training camp with the Crew last year as a midseason addition, describes working with the club as an "ongoing process of always understanding more."
The Crew's second-year coach has become known for a unique style of play that is intertwined with concepts that Nancy himself knows takes players time to adjust to. The success Columbus yielded last season, even with key players who had only a few months in the system, proved to his team that the time adjusting was worth it.
Nearing the end of training camp, there has been almost a month for the players who have never worked with Nancy before to get their first taste of the club's style of play.
Derrick Jones, an MLS veteran who faced the Crew last season with Charlotte FC, was familiar with what Columbus' style of play when he signed as a free agent this offseason. He shortly learned that playing with the reigning MLS Cup champions is very different than playing against them.
"I know that this is not easy, what I ask them to do, especially for the center back and also the guy in the middle, and I can see already that Derrick is able to see things that he was not able to see in the beginning," Nancy said. "He understands perfectly what we want to do, but now he needs also time to execute in a better way."
While the new players were adjusting to the specifics in terms of concepts during the second leg of training camp in Santa Barbara, the returning players were being challenged to add layers to their game.
"The idea is all about structure, but within the structure we need discipline," Nancy said. "The discipline is going to help us to be more creative, to innovate a little bit more. And this is the focus that I want for my players, to be able to put a little bit more doubt on the opposition, to add more tools offensively but also defensively."
Nancy explained that the idea of manipulating the opposition by "trying to look far to see close" has been difficult for the team to pick up right away.
As Columbus' newest attacking threat, Marino Hinestroza has been open to learning and seeing these concepts and the overall game from this new offensive perspective.
"Attacking the space ... getting as many people around the ball as possible to then create space on the opposite side," Hinestroza said via translator when asked about the new concepts he has learned so far during camp.
The 21-year-old is working to make sure he is mixing the style of play being asked of him with the skills he already has.
'Not doing anything impossible'
When Nicholas Hagen, who joined Columbus in the offseason, first started learning the basics of what being a goalkeeper looked like in the Crew's system, he struggled seeing the big picture.
Now starting to understand what Nancy and goalkeeping coach Phil Boerger are looking for out of him, Hagen notes that the concepts he has learned throughout training camp veer from what goalkeepers are normally taught.
"Growing up, you usually get the ball and be as fast as you can with the ball," Hagen said. "And here's having the patience and having the understanding what you trying to accomplish when they're pressing. You're not doing anything impossible. It's just understanding why you're doing it and how to do it."
Boerger, who is entering his second year in his role with Columbus' first team, had a similar reaction as the players he is now coaching. Upon joining Nancy's staff, Boerger had a moment where he felt that this style of goalkeeping play would be difficult for him to coach.
Knowing that if it was difficult to adjust to as a coach, that the goalkeepers would likely have some difficulties adjusting as the players executing on the field, Boerger also saw the proof from last season that these tactics work.
"For Nico right now, it's an adjustment in terms of how he plays with the ball at his feet," Boerger said. "You saw with Patrick (Schulte) last year in terms of how he sometimes waits and draws pressure in ... to kind of pause on the ball as we call it, to still be able to look far to see close and find the play where the pressure is coming."
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus Crew near end of training camp; how are new players adjusting?
