What did Inter Miami’s games without Messi show? Suárez is the driving force, but the defence is struggling

Inter Miami is going through a period without its biggest star, Lionel Messi. The Argentine is suffering from a muscle injury and his teammates have to do without him. What have the games without Messi shown?

Suárez will tighten Miami even without Messi

Luis Suárez has come to the MLS to help his former Barcelona teammates. It didn’t take long for the Uruguayan cannonballer to get his reputation.

He’s been scoring goals in the pre-season, with Lionel Messi being the one to pass him the ball for most of them. In the games in which his very good Argentine friend cannot play, he has taken the team under his wing.

He scored twice in the 3-1 win against DC United. The match against the New York Red Bull did not go well for the whole of Miami and ended in a 0:4 loss. The next game against New York City, this time City, ended in a 1-1 draw. You can guess who made it through. Yes, Luis Suárez. If it wasn’t for the Uruguayan, Miami probably wouldn’t have won a single point in the games without Messi.

Busquets in midfield alone is not enough

Sergio Busquets was at one time one of the best, if not the very best, defensive midfielders in the world. However, no one can stop time and the days when he could basically do the midfield alone are long gone. There was a notion in the Miami club’s midfield that younger teammates would run circles around the seasoned veteran. Specifically, Benjamin Cremaschi and Federico Redondo.

Unfortunately for the entire club, both of the aforementioned players are injured. So in the last few games, Diego Gomez and David Ruiz have been playing with Busquets.

Gomez is putting in a pretty solid performance, but without the pair injured, it’s as if the midfield lacks all creativity. It is Messi in particular who is lagging in this role and his absence is very sensitive in this regard.

The defence is in disarray

Of course, Messi more or less doesn’t interfere in this part of the team. Anyway, even before the arrival of the Argentine footballer it was clear that the defence is the weakest link of the whole team. Then when Jordi Alba arrived, the quality was understandably raised. But the problem is at stopper.

The defense is the reason why Miami is not at the very top of MLS. The team often wins games simply by outshooting the opposition and by Messi simply outplaying the opposition with his immense quality in the final third of the pitch. However, when push comes to shove, Inter Miami’s defense can easily overcome any team.

Miami has its own style, but team is missing Messi

Tata Martino, the coach of Beckham’s team, has a clear style of play based on ball possession. He has several players in his midfield who are used to a similar style from Barcelona. The problem arises, however, without Messi, as his creative qualities are second to none.

If we look at the number of successful passes, Miami is first in all of MLS with 3,232. The second team, the Columbus Crew, records 2,861 successful passes. Unfortunately, passing numbers don’t win titles, or Miami would have no competition.

Source: MLS, Goal.com