Caleb Porter's Crew in 2022: Sources of Optimism
Caleb Porter's Crew in 2022: Sources of Optimism
Why Revs fans should be optimistic about their new head coach
In amongst all the mixed reactions among Revolution fans about the appointment of Caleb Porter as head coach, his failure to get his last team to the playoffs three times out of four attempts has often been mentioned.
Porter took over a team in 2019 that had made the playoffs the previous season and promptly missed them in his first year. The Crew’s MLS Cup success in 2020 was followed by two more seasons with no playoffs. All of this with supportive ownership, a top third payroll in MLS and a GM who has constructed two MLS Cup winning rosters. The second of which came right after Porter left the Crew.
The 2022 edition of the Crew — despite missing the playoffs — did have some highlights that could foreshadow success here in New England in 2024. The Crew finished in eighth place — one spot outside of the playoffs — had MLS switched to its current playoff format one year sooner they would have been in. And as we saw in 2021 thanks to the NYCFC Yankees, if you can find a way in, you can go all the way.
The Crew actually finished the 2022 season with a positive goal difference of +5, the two teams that finished ahead of them both had goal differences of -9 and only bumped the Crew out by two points. Porter guided Columbus through a season with just eight losses, only Philadelphia lost fewer games across all of MLS. It was an MLS-leading 16 draws and only 10 wins that doomed the Crew to sitting out the playoffs.
Philadelphia was also the only Eastern Conference team to allow fewer goals than Columbus, the Crew only let in 41 goals all year. Porter hyped his playing style pretty strongly during his introductory press conference, he may have overhyped how much his teams decide games with the ball and their attacking intents but allowing a mere 1.21 goals per game is a defensive record worth talking up.
What led to those 16 draws despite allowing so few goals? Only scoring 46 goals themselves and those 46 goals were an overperformance of their expected goals on the season which totaled up to just 40.6.
A deeper look into the data from the Crew’s inept attack suggests their approach to moving the ball into threatening areas and creating chances was effective. It was the converting of those chances that sunk their season.
The Crew ranked third in MLS in touches in the attacking third and seventh in touches in the opponent’s penalty area. Their approach to the penalty area was not reliant on converting crosses as they were only 19th in successful crosses into the area.
The Revs don’t have the aerial target in Adam Buksa that they did last time Porter coached at Gillette. What they have now is attacking players more adept with the ball at their feet and the 2022 Crew ranked seventh in passes into the penalty area.
One last point on Columbus’ ability to set up chances, they ranked 10th in MLS in key passes. That’s a passing metric that tracks passes that lead directly to a shot. This strongly suggests Porter’s build-up and attack play methodologies can create quality goal-scoring opportunities. The Revs will need to be more lethal with those chances than the last team he worked with.
Lastly, the Revs are stacked with attacking players able to take opponents on and dribble past them. Porter’s Crew were third in MLS in progressive carries and first in carries into the opponent’s penalty area. Hopefully, this encouragement of and providing a platform for dribbling at the opponent is a feature of Porter’s tactical blueprint and will continue to be so with New England.
As discussed on Revolution Recap, after watching Columbus Crew’s visit to Gillette on May 7, 2022, Porter’s comments about his playing style being “exciting," “pro-active,” and “deciding the game with the ball” sounded like typical introductory press conference fluff. The Crew barely escaped Gillette with a draw, had 36% possession, just three shots in the second half and struggled at times to show any ability to bring the attack to the Revs.
It would be unfair, shortsighted, and dumb to judge a coach on one game. Zooming out and looking at how his final season in Columbus stacked up statistically over 34 games provides a more nuanced look into what Porter could do to deliver success to the Revs.
All of the stats in this article are available on FBref.com, an excellent source data source for MLS statistics. Here’s their definition of a progressive carry: Carries that move the ball towards the opponent's goal line at least 10 yards from its furthest point in the last six passes, or any carry into the penalty area. Excludes carries which end in the defending 50% of the pitch