Boxing and chess: Crew coach explains approach
When Wilfried Nancy describes the way he wants his team to play, he uses two metaphors: boxing and chess.
The new coach of the Crew, hired away from CF Montreal after leading the club to a franchise-record 65-point season, has an exacting, detailed approach to soccer. For that reason, when Nancy was promoted to be Montreal's head coach shortly before the 2021 season began, after Thierry Henry stepped down unexpectedly, there was a sharp learning curve for his players.
Defender Alistair Johnston, who developed significantly during Nancy's tenure and was recently sold to Celtic in the Scottish Premiership, told The Athletic that the early days under Nancy were like "rewiring" what he'd previously been taught.
That's where Nancy's metaphors come in. Boxing, for the intensity he wants his players to maintain, and chess, for the way he wants them to manipulate opponents.
"We need to be intense," Nancy said. "Not only intense physically, but also intense mentally. We want to be able to be an aggressive team, to be able to win the ball back as soon as possible, to be difficult to play against. For me, this is the key point. Also, when we have the ball, we want to put doubt in the opposition."
Under Nancy, every player is encouraged to be patient with the ball, setting traps for opponents and luring them in. When the opponent steps into the trap – typically, by applying pressure to the player in possession – the attack begins.
"If we need to make 15 passes to score goals, we will do it," Nancy said. "If we need to make two passes to score a goal, we are going to do it. The idea is to play with the opposition."
Montreal scored 63 goals in 2022, the fifth-most in MLS, and 17 more than the Crew scored. Long passing sequences were a regular feature. Per Fbref, Montreal completed the fourth-most passes in MLS with 14,888, had the secondhighest completion percentage at 82.6% and led MLS in completed passes entering the final third of the field with 1,310.
The Crew ranked 11th in completed passes with 13,516, 12th in completion percentage at 80.8% and 11th in final third passes with 1,084.
Nancy doesn't see his philosophy as a major shift from what the Crew did under Caleb Porter, but more of a new mentality.
"It's going to be more about the intensity that I want to put in place in terms of the way we want to defend," Nancy said, "the way we want to aggress the opposition and the way we want to be proactive to defend as well. This is more about the mindset."
In other words, Nancy expects his team to play fearlessly and focus on imposing its style of play on the opponent.
"I want my team to be bold all the time," Nancy said. "It means that no matter the score, the idea is to stay focused on the task . ... For me, it's about trying to dictate the play. If we cannot, I want my players to be able to be courageous, try to endure the pressure and as soon as we have the possibility to step up the line, we do it."
Shortly after his introduction, Nancy said his first job as the Crew's coach is to convince his players of the way he wants them to play, but he realizes there will be an adjustment period.
"My job (with) my staff is to guide all the players, because they have to be able to find the solutions by themselves," Nancy said. "But in the beginning, we need to put the concept in place." bjohnson@dispatch.com @Baileyajohnson_