Tata Martino gives update on Messi for the playoffs

Inter Miami have just four regular season games remaining before the playoffs get underway on 26 October. After failing to make the postseason last year, it’s a huge achievement - and the team have an even bigger one in their sights. Inter sit top of the Eastern Conference on 64 points. With 12 points still to play for, Tata Martino’s men have the chance to set a new MLS regular season points record, which is currently held by the New England Revolution, who finished the 2021 campaign with 73.

The first goal however, is securing the Supporters’ Shield - given to the team with the best regular season record. Currently six points clear of their nearest rivals (LA Galaxy, who have played one game more), victory against Charlotte FC at Chase Stadium on Saturday will be enough to do that.

Head coach Gerardo Martino spoke to the media prior to tomorrow’s match and highlighted several points - the performance of his defense, how Leo Messi is doing after overcoming his ankle injury, the difference between playing at home or away in the MLS, and the competitive balance of his team. Diario AS USA Latino was there to hear what the Argentine coach had to say.

Martino is sure Messi will be in top form for the 2024 MLS Playoffs

“The more full games Leo (Messi) plays, the better he will get. Obviously Leo doesn’t need to do different physical work in training, but rather a competitive rhythm every time he plays 90 minutes. That gives me an idea that he’s going to be in very good shape for the playoffs, because in addition to the games he plays with us, he also has games with the national team. So we have a lot of hope that he’ll be in very good shape for the playoffs”.

Regarding the tactical changes he was forced to make while Messi was out injured, he added: “For seven or eight games we maintained a 4-3-3, we changed it to 4-4-2, so that already implies a certain readjustment and the team had good and bad periods using that system. We have not been able to maintain the consistency that we had achieved before, but it is a matter of training to be able to achieve it again”.

Injury problems in defense and the team’s performance

“The problem is that we have David [Martínez] injured right now, but we have had a very good response from both Noah [Allen] and Ian [Fray], who have played in that position. Ian and Sergiy [Kryvtsov], who I think have never played as a central defender, did very well in Atlanta. We have had a very good response. As for Busquets as a central defender, I cannot analyse that on its own, because his presence as a central defender indicates that Yannick [Bright] would be part of the team. That’s what we have to assess in our analysis every time we play a match”.

The difference between playing at home or away in the MLS

“We try to approach every games in the same way. It’s true that the home teams are quite strong here, the teams propose a different approach. But to be honest, when we plan our games, we do it regardless of the situation we are going to play in and, in fact, there are statistics that show the number of games we have won playing away from home, which is not very normal in the MLS. We hope that the idea of playing everywhere the same way will later be reflected in our performance”.

The sporting balance for Inter Miami

“I’d rather not make any conjectures, one way or another. If I compare last year with this one, there’s no need to say much. To put in simply, the season is long, and in a long season, in any league in the world, no matter how good the league is, the teams are going to have ups and downs, good and bad spells. Obviously, the absences we have had due to injury or participation in national teams, forces us to put together different teams and although the idea of how to play is the same, the tactical disposition is not the same.

When you see that Diego, Luis, Leo come back, it’s practically like we’re starting over, everything that happened during the Copa América and that was extended a bit during Leo’s injury, it was a team, when everyone got better it’s putting together another team for the competition, and we’re adjusting to that, everything requires a readjustment”.

Importance of Saturday’s game against Charlotte FC

“This week we are obviously in a decisive zone to try to be first in the standings and we will see how the matches go and what needs we have, in terms of that, prioritizing first the search for the objective, especially because after these three matches comes the international break. Some players will obviously continue competing, but the rest of us have a week to recover. We are going to prioritize, without risking any players - if anyone has a physical problem, we are going to take care of him”.

There are four regular season games left to play and Inter have already secured a place in the postseason with the Round 1 Best-of-3 series starting on Saturday, October 26 and reaching their conclusion on Sunday, November 10.

Inter Miami’s next game is against Charlotte at Chase Stadium on Saturday 28 September with kickoff scheduled for 7:30 p.m. ET. The three remaining regular season games after that are against Columbus Crew (A), Toronto (A) and New England (H).