'We Relied on Him Too Much': Inter Miami's Tata Martino Highlights Need to Ease Lionel Messi's Workload

Even great players need their rest. Inter Miami coach Tata Marino agrees as the Argentine spoke out about the club’s need to allow Lionel Messi to rest and not expend all his energy every game throughout the season.

After a dismal season last year, where Inter Miami finished second-to-last in the MLS, the side has been off to a wondrous start as they remain unbeaten through the first two games of the season heading into their derby against Orlando City.

The point of difference, as always, for Inter Miami has been none other than their talisman superstar Messi himself, who helped Miami salvage a point in their last fixture against LA Galaxy with a stellar late equalizer.

Messi and teammate Jordi Alba broke through the left flank and breezed through with the Spaniard ultimately laying off a killer pull-back into the path of Messi who, just about got to the end of it and poked the ball into the back of the net with the outside of his left foot.

But, even with the help of new recruits such as Luis Suarez, Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba, all former Barcelona teammates of Messi, there still exists a high level of dependence on the Argentine to be the fulcrum of the team and perform at a high level at all times.

“I feel that in these last two matches, he has expended too much energy, and that is also my responsibility to make sure the team operates in a way that we can use him in the best way,” Tata Martino stated to reporters.

“I’ve been discussing some things with him and what concerns me the most is the day-to-day and how he is recovering game by game. I feel that in these first two matches, we have relied on him too much, which has caused him significant fatigue in both games,” he said.

Messi has a string of fixtures coming up for both club and country this upcoming month and hence, Martino emphasised the importance of allowing Messi to take up a more clinical and less tiresome role within the squad to utilise the best out of him and to ensure that the 8-time Ballon D’Or winner does not exhaust himself early on into the season.

“In the Leagues Cup game against Orlando (last season), he often found the ball in the final quarter of the field and was able to finish the play, he scored from inside the area. That’s what we need to get back to, the team finding him to make plays and sometimes finding him for the finishes,” he said.

Inter Miami are up to take on Orlando City in a hometown derby up next on Sunday.

(with inputs from agencies)