Miami attempts rebound, ‘clearly Messi-dependent’ – Mascherano

Inter Miami coach Javier Mascherano laughed off suggestions his team was too dependent upon Lionel Messi and insisted they will bounce back stronger when they host New York Red Bulls in MLS action on Saturday night following a tough Concacaf Champions Cup semifinals elimination.

The Herons faced a difficult loss when falling 3-1 (5-1 on aggregate) to the Vancouver Whitecaps on Wednesday night in the second leg of the semifinal series as their CCL dream ended.

The CCL result marks the third defeat in six days for Miami, a team previously unbeaten in Major League Soccer prior to April 27.

“Teams have been dependent on Messi,” Mascherano said during a news conference on Friday. “[Pep] Guardiola’s Barcelona was dependent for years, Luis Enrique’s Barcelona, Valverde’s Barcelona, and the Argentina national team for 15 or 20 years.

“In other words, when you have a player like Messi, you’re clearly going to develop a dependency on him. It’s impossible not to depend on him.

“It’s clear that there are days when the team perhaps helps him more and other days when it helps him less.”

The team’s defense struggled in the series against Vancouver in the international tournament, letting in five goals in total.

But the focus remains on the attack, with Messi and Luis Suárez failing to find the back of the net throughout the 180+ minutes.

“Two weeks ago, we were like Disneyland in here, it was all joy and everything was fine. Well, I’m not on one side or the other,” Mascherano said.

“Not even two weeks ago we were undefeated in the MLS and had lost only one game in 8 or 9 matches we played, and everyone was praising the team’s performance. I’ve always said here, we had to be prepared for bad moments. I’m not going to go crazy now either. This is how it is, this is football.”

Inter Miami has the opportunity to end the losing streak this weekend when hosting the Red Bulls at Chase Stadium on Saturday night. The coach maintained the focus remains on succeeding in MLS before looking ahead to the Club World Cup in the summer.

“We have to keep our heads down, work hard, become stronger as a group, and know that we have to break out of this dynamic of losing these three games,” Mascherano said. “Tomorrow we have a great opportunity to return to victory and start putting history back on track. Not much more than that. It’s not that complicated.”

Miami sits in fifth place on the Eastern Conference table with 18 points in nine games.