Messi and the Rotation Strategy at Inter Miami: The Key to Success in MLS
Throughout the 2024 Major League Soccer (MLS) season, Lionel Messi, captain of Inter Miami, participated in 55% of the available matches. Despite this limited participation, Messi led the club towards the Supporters’ Shield and an MLS points record, in addition to being named the league’s MVP. To achieve this, Messi needed only 19 matches (1,485 minutes) where he demonstrated his worth with 20 goals and 16 assists. The then-Inter Miami coach, Gerardo “Tata” Martino, quickly understood that the team could manage Messi’s playing time, at 37 years old, when necessary, and still qualify for the most important phase of the MLS: the postseason. Historically, teams only need to win approximately one-third of their regular season matches to qualify for the playoffs. With Javier Mascherano at the helm, Messi’s participation in Inter Miami follows a similar pattern.Inter Miami is preparing for the Club World Cup, which begins on Saturday, and the club has been saving its best player for key moments. Winning as many games as possible is not the priority for an MLS team. The crucial thing is to win the important matches. The Club World Cup, the Concacaf Champions Cup, and the Leagues Cup are direct elimination competitions where Inter Miami makes sure to have Messi if possible. The MLS playoffs are also that. But, the MLS regular season? Not so much. Unlike Messi’s previous leagues, such as LaLiga and Ligue 1, consistent success throughout the season and first place in the standings do not guarantee the trophy in MLS. Instead, the American league uses a playoff system where the top seven teams from two divisions at the end of the regular season qualify directly for the postseason tournament. According to the new MLS rules, the eighth and ninth positions in each conference compete in a single-game series for the last playoff spot. Each conference has 15 teams, which means that more than half of the MLS teams access the postseason. In the last two years, teams that accumulated between 40 and 45 points during the season managed to qualify for the playoffs as the last seeds. In 2024, CF Montreal secured the eighth position with only 43 points in 34 matches, while Atlanta United narrowly surpassed D.C. United for the ninth position with 40 points. As Mascherano says, the format is permissive, as teams can lose several matches without negatively affecting their chances of reaching the playoffs, the first objective for success in MLS. Although Atlanta United was the last team to qualify for the postseason with a record of 10-10-14 (W-D-L) in 2024, the team eliminated Miami, leader of the Eastern Conference and winner of the Supporters’ Shield, in the first round. The league encourages teams to finish the regular season in the top spots of the table to secure the home-field advantage and compete for the Supporters’ Shield, but once they qualify for the playoffs, anything can happen. In 2023, fans saw Martino dose Messi in unimportant matches, saving him for when he was most needed. In the last ten games before the playoffs, he missed 25% of the MLS regular season games, not due to injury, but simply to rest. Towards the end of the 2024 MLS campaign, Martino left Messi out of the starting eleven in the two matches prior to the playoffs. Again, it wasn’t due to injury, but to give him rest, as Miami had already secured their place in the playoffs. He played a total of 65 minutes in those two matches, saving energy while maintaining a necessary rhythm for the first-round playoff series against Atlanta United, where Messi played all 270 minutes, and even so, Miami lost. “We made the decision on Friday to give the players a rest. It made sense after two full games, we made some rotations and we had players ready to come in,” Martino said before the playoffs. “We were able to achieve our two goals. One was to give the players a rest and also to win the match for what it means from a motivational point of view to be in a position to break the points record.” And now, in 2025, the pattern continues. According to research, Messi has played 73% of the available minutes with Inter Miami in the MLS this season, compared to 86% of the minutes played in the Concacaf Champions Cup this season, including added time. He has participated more since mid-May, but that was aimed at getting him in physical shape given that they were eliminated from the Concacaf Champions Cup. Inter Miami began the 2025 campaign juggling MLS and the Concacaf Champions Cup, playing a match every three days in international destinations. The team made a rapid transition from preseason to two demanding competitions, forcing the club to modify the training schedule to adapt to the large amount of playing time. Although Mascherano insists that Messi is accustomed to playing under such demands after doing so for most of his career, fatigue and workload management re-entered the conversation. After qualifying for the Concacaf Champions Cup semi-finals for the first time in the club’s history, the team had a tight schedule: Vancouver in Canada on April 24, FC Dallas at Chase Stadium in Fort Lauderdale on April 26, and finally, the second leg of the CCC against the Whitecaps on April 30. The team and Mascherano entered the week with a plan, returning to the strategy seen in 2024, when Miami prioritized international competition and rested Messi completely. The captain played the full 90 minutes of the first leg against Vancouver before taking a break. Then he missed the pre-match training against Dallas, and Mascherano cited fatigue: “Messi finished the [first leg] [against Vancouver] well. Obviously he was fatigued. Playing on artificial turf can make a player even more fatigued due to the ground.” Messi did not participate in the regular season MLS match against Dallas. Miami lost 4-3 before returning to action by receiving the Whitecaps for the return match. “Obviously we decided, like many of his teammates, to rest him after the match against Vancouver, where we had to travel for six or seven hours and play on artificial turf,” Mascherano said after the match against Dallas. “But it’s okay; he trained today, so he’s ready [for the return match against Vancouver in the CCC].” Messi also missed three matches in March to avoid fatigue as the final stages of the Concacaf Champions Cup approached. He watched Inter Miami win two regular season MLS matches and the first leg of the Concacaf Champions Cup round of 16 without him. At that moment, Mascherano cited workload management as the reason for resting Messi, as he explained that the team intended to prevent any type of fatigue as the final stages of the international tournament approached rapidly. “As we want to take care of him and don’t want him to feel fatigued, we decided to give him a rest, knowing the risks we face,” Mascherano told the media on March 6. “Obviously, not having the best player in the world is complicated.” At 37 years old, Messi has managed to adapt his technique on the field and create a training regimen off it to continue playing at a high level. But as he himself said last year: “Rest is very important nowadays. As we get older, everything is more difficult.” “I know that as soon as I think I can’t perform anymore, or I don’t enjoy the game anymore, or I’m not able to help my teammates, then I’ll stop,” Messi said. Rest and skipping fewer important MLS matches have been key for Messi to help his teammates when needed. When the Club World Cup begins, a similar pattern could also emerge.“The MLS season allows you to fail in certain matches, something that doesn’t happen in the knockout phase of a continental league, where you would be out. But the CCC playoffs prepare you for what’s coming in October with the playoffs. In the end, MLS is a long season that comes down to a continental cup where the knockout phases are the norm, and in the end, you can’t fail,” commented Mascherano.
Javier Mascherano
