Tata Martino rules out special plan for Messi at Inter Miami

Lionel Messi seems to have made a complete recovery from the muscular problems that made him miss a handful of games for Inter Miami this season. From this point onward, both player, club and even Argentina’s national team have their sights set on their respective objectives, in which the eight-time Ballon d’Or award is a fundamental piece.

Less games, more rest for Inter Miami

Inter Miami’s fixtures calendar seems to be entering a period of calm with just one mid-week game on the horizon. So now that the team won’t be playing every three days, there is less concern about looking after Messi - at least that is how Gerardo Martino sees it.

During his press conference on Friday, Martino assured that Messi is currently in excellent condition and while the No.10 will want to be in optimum shape for this year’s Copa América, that’s still a couple of months away so for now, there is no need to design a special regime for the player. The coach insists that the training plan for Messi will remain the same as always.

“From now, we’re going to play games every weekend. I think we only have one game during the week, against Orlando (15 May). We will evaluate those moments when the number of games becomes more frequent, but there is no need to create a special plan because he’s feeling good, he is working well on a day-to-day basis and at the pace we are going. We will continue in the same way,” Martino told reporters.

Martino, excited about the future for Inter Miami

Last weekend’s 2-3 victory against Sporting Kansas City at Arrowhead Stadium was a fresh injection of encouragement and confidence for Inter Miami, who now are focused on the next game, against 14th-place Nashville on Saturday.

Looking ahead to the game, the Argentine coach admitted that he has been unable to field his strongest side for much of the campaign due to injuries or players being called up by their national teams. Martino estimates that the Herons should be back to full strength after the Copa América and perhaps the Olympic Games when they will face the final third of the season. However, what they have achieved so far is encouraging and already a massive improvement on last season.

“The team’s performance in the second half in the game with Kansas was really good and now we hope to build on that. I was happy with how the team reacted and responded just four four days after being eliminated from the Concachampions. It was a show of character. It was very important for us to win that game, but the second half performance was excellent. Now we hope to continue growing. You can see the development and the desire to move forward,” Martino continued.

“We still don’t have all of our players available and that probably will not happen until July or even the end of July, because we have the Copa América then the Olympics. The issue is that the team can provide answers until then so that what happened last year does not happen again this time. Right now, we have more points - if I’m not mistaken we have six more points than we did at the same stage last season. The team is in a different situation in the table and if we can overcome this until the moment when we are all available which is the last stage of the tournament, we have an exciting future”.

Tata Martino gives no indication about the arrival of Matías Rojas

Finally, another of the topics that Tata Martino addressed in his press conference ahead of the Nashville game concerned the incorporation of the Paraguayan soccer player Matías Rojas, who apparently is close to officially becoming an Inter Miami player.

Martino was asked for his views on the profile of Matías Rojas which was published on the official MLS but has since been taken down. The coach preferred not give an opinion, and assured that as of the moment, the transfer has not gone through and he will wait for the market to close in the coming days.

“I’m not the one who manages the market so I can’t talk about players we don’t have. The market still has six or five days left. Regarding Matías Rojas, the MLS will have to take charge of that...” Martino responded with a laugh.