Crew coach Porter seeks solutions for punchless offense

Just about every offensive statistic shows the Crew are one of the worst teams at creating scoring chances in Major League Soccer this season.

It hasn’t been one unique failure as the Crew have floated to six points below the final playoff spot with six games remaining.

To coach Caleb Porter, the answer as to why the Crew have gone from an above-average offense last season to significantly underdelivering is complicated with myriad factors.

“There’s not one answer,” Porter said. “But I have a lot of answers, and I have a lot of solutions. I’m working on it, and we’ll continue to work on it tirelessly because that’s my job.”

There have indeed been a couple of reasons Porter has identified, mostly having to do with personnel available and a decline in performance from outside attacking players.

Through 28 games, the Crew are 21st of 27 teams in goals per game (1.14) and have the third-fewest goals inside the 18yard box. They also rank near the bottom in shots per match (24th), shots on target (25th) and expected goals (25th). They are last in assists. In fact, the Crew’s 18 assists are six fewer than the team with the second-fewest.

Last year, the Crew were a good attacking team but not a great one. They finished eighth in the league in goals scored and went through dry spells. But they could rely on right back Harrison Afful and left back Milton Valenzuela to join

the attack and help the wingers get in crosses, which is integral to Porter’s 4-23-1 scheme.

This season, Afful has started to show his age and can’t join the attack as he used to without the Crew being susceptible on defense. Reserve right back Saad Abdul-salaam hasn’t made a significant impact.

Valenzuela has missed most of the season with injuries, sitting out 20 games after playing 23 of 27 last season.

“We get a lot of our chances created through our outside backs,” Porter said. “There were many games where we didn’t have outside backs who were attacking. And with a couple of the profiles of guys we’ve played there, they’re not going to bring quite as much as other guys that were injured during that.”

The wingers have arguably struggled more than the outside backs. In 2020, wingers and outside backs combined for 11 goals and 21 assists in 23 games. This season, they’ve combined for four goals and nine assists.

Kevin Molino was brought in to be a starter and to lift the offense to new heights. He struggled coming back from a hamstring injury, scoring once in 11 games before tearing his ACL in August. Alex Matan was signed as a project, but there was a hope the young talent would help the offense. He hasn’t scored or recorded an assist in 25 games.

Returning wingers Pedro Santos, Luis Diaz and Derrick Etienne Jr. have combined for three goals and seven assists — only one non-penalty-kick goal.

“When you look at just, in general, the production from the wingers — again, going back to just the black and white, call a spade a spade, not pointing fingers — we have not gotten enough goals and assists out of our wingers this year,” Porter said.

At the center of the Crew’s attack is Lucas Zelarayan, the club’s primary chance creator. With seven goals and three assists this season, Zelarayan has at times won the Crew games virtually on his own and has at times struggled to keep the ball and find the final pass for a goal-scoring opportunity.

He’s capable of being a play-making, attacking central midfielder — the No. 10. In four playoff games last season, Zelarayan had two goals and five assists. But overall, he might be better as a secondary scorer from the position, rather than being assist-minded like New England’s Carles Gil or the Crew’s Federico Higuain before Zelarayan.

In 42 regular-season games, Zelarayan has just eight assists with 13 goals. Playing an average of just more than 24 games a year in eight seasons with the Crew, Higuain averaged 7.9 assists per season.

Zelarayan has said injuries have affected his game this season. Last year, the connection he had with Santos and Valenzuela was the staple of the Crew’s offense, and helped forward Gyasi Zardes to have one of his best campaigns.

When Zelarayan is at his best, the Crew can create through him, like they did last year. And when Zelarayan is not at his best? Porter believes there’s still a bigger issue. jmyers@dispatch.com @_jcmyers

JOSHUA A. BICKEL/COLUMBUS DISPATCH Columbus Crew coach Caleb Porter says the performance of outside attacking players and an at-times depleted roster have caused the team’s offense to regress.