Depth helps Crew navigate without Nagbe
A player of Darlington Nagbe’s caliber can’t easily be replaced.
His passing accuracy is among the best in Major League Soccer. His ability to maneuver away from defenders and keep the ball under pressure makes him more of an escape artist than a midfielder.
But the Crew will have to find a way to maintain the best record in MLS for another two to three weeks while the 30-year-old Nagbe misses time with a meniscus injury to a knee that required arthroscopic surgery last week.
With 11 games left in the regular season, he’ll likely miss at least half of the Crew’s remaining games before the postseason.
In general, the Crew will need its key contributors to be efficient while relying on a defense that has proven it can win games even when the lineup isn’t at full strength. From what coach Caleb Porter has seen in the past two games, he’s confident his team can continue getting results until Nagbe returns.
“We don’t build our team around one or two players. We build our identity around a team concept,” Porter said Monday. “That’s why I always feel like it’s so important that we have depth as well, and we have a one-two in every spot. We have that this year.”
In the two games Nagbe has missed with the injury, the Crew has scored four goals, resulting in a draw after an early two-goal deficit against Chicago and a 2-0 win against Nashville SC on Saturday at Mapfre Stadium.
Though the offense hasn’t looked as dynamic without his presence, getting the services of designated player Lucas Zelarayan back from an knee ligament injury should alleviate some concerns of filling the void left by Nagbe.
In his last game before being out with an injury, on Sept. 6 against FC Cincinnati, Nagbe played in place of Zelarayan and was superb, completing all 41 passes and taking three shots.
At his regular position as a defensive midfielder, the back-line defenders rarely have to worry about a counter attack off a Nagbe turnover because of his craftiness with multiple defenders on him and his ability to draw fouls.
“He’s one of the best in the league to protect the ball, to play some passes that only him or a couple other people in the league kind of see,” defender Jonathan Mensah said. “His ability to move off the ball is incredible. We see that in training every day, and the whole league also knows what he brings to a team.”
Nagbe’s contributions on the line behind Zelarayan makes the Crew one of the more formidable offenses in MLS.
Zelarayan said he felt comfortable in his first 20 minutes back from injury against Nashville and didn’t feel limited. Having Zelarayan completely healthy for the foreseeable future would be a lift for what has proven to be a capable offense even without Nagbe or Zelarayan.
“The team will feel his absence,” Zelarayan said through a translator. “With that said, we also have a strong team that is competitive, and we will be able to get by without him.”
Another reason Porter and the Crew are confident in their ability to win without Nagbe has been the play of Fatai Alashe, who has stepped into the starting lineup for Nagbe. While he’s not the distributor or has the degree of technical ability as Nagbe, Alashe has provided consistency and stability off the bench.
Last season when the Crew was without its top players, Porter didn’t have the depth to keep getting wins, resulting in a 1-13-1 stretch after a 4-1-1 start.
The roster was retooled to sustain its level of play through key injuries. A draw and a win in its past two outings shows that the Crew can continue to accumulate points without one of the best midfielders in MLS.
“We’re certainly better when he’s in,” Porter said. “But it’s, again, great that we can keep firing on all cylinders and finding ways to win games.” jmyers@dispatch.com @_jcmyers