Tactical changes: Porter giving Crew central midfielders more flexibility

Since Caleb Porter took over Columbus Crew SC, fans and media pundits alike have been looking for how the new head coach will do things differently than his predecessor, Gregg Berhalter. Throughout the preseason, there was the talk of pressing, and how that would change this team, or what other wrinkles Porter would throw into the game to help his side.

This got to the point where Porter even joked this week that maybe everyone is looking for tactical changes too much and seeing things that aren’t there, as he and Berhalter ultimately play a similar style.

But there is one change that was noticeable as preseason progressed and into last Saturday’s regular season opener. That has to do with…