Tadeo Allende, right, of Inter Miami CF celebrates with teammate Lionel Messi after scoring a goal during Miami’s Eastern Conference semifinal playoff victory at FC Cincinnati on Sunday.
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For those who have wondered what the next era of Inter Miami looks like, when Lionel Messi returns on a three-year contract extension, but veteran teammatezs Jordi Alba, Segio Busquets and potentially Luis Suarez move on to retirement, the last two weeks may have provided a frightening preview for MLS foes.
With Messi starting in an otherwise youthful front four, and Suarez suspended for the first game and relegated to the bench for the second, the Herons have been dominant in 4-0 playoff wins over Nashville SC and FC Cincinnati. And they’ve done so by adopting a more vertical, transition-oriented game model that hasn’t resembled how they’ve played for most of this season, but may very well be the template for 2026 and beyond.
The Herons’ 50% and 51% possession numbers in those games were two of their five lowest figures against MLS opposition all season long. Meanwhile, Messi’s 2.1 expected primary assists were also the most he has registered in any MLS regular season or playoff match since his arrival in 2023.
Like Country, Like Club?
After spending much of this first season trying to get MLS to bend to the ball-dominant preferences of the core group of Messi and his former FC Barcelona veteran teammates, these trends suggest Messi’s future Miami sides will bear more resemblance to the modern Argentina national team for which he also features.
Just like the Miami team that took the field on Sunday, that Argentina squad has surrounded Messi with more athletic, prime-age talent that function like spokes spinning around a 38-year-old, eight-time Ballon d’Or-winning wheel.
And as great a goalscorer as Messi is – he could surpass 900 for his career in all competitions before the MLS Cup Playoffs are completed – his current role for Argentina is one where he looks to provide first and score second, even though it often still leads to more goals scored than assists compiled.
Between the 2021 Copa America, 2022 World Cup and 2024 Copa America, Messi actually registerd 8.9 expected assists against 7.1 non-penalty goals. He had 12 goals against nine assists across those competitions in part due to his well above expected-goal model finishing ability, and in part due to penalty kick taking.
Back Where They Started?
For Miami, he has six goals and six assists so far this postseason, which is already an MLS record for goal contributions in a single postseason. But what’s more notable is that his last two outings marked the first time since his arrival in June of 2023 in which he has contributed multiple assists in consecutive games against MLS opponents.
Ironically, this approach that Miami have finally landed on – perhaps by necessity at first when Suarez served his red card suspension – resembles what previous manager Tata Martino tried to install at Miami in the second half of the 2023 campaign and all of 2024. Yet the players Martino’s version of Miami leaned upon to play that way, such as Leonardo Campana, Julian Gressel and Robert Taylor, were eventually jettisoned as Miami spent much of 2025 trying to replicate the ball-dominant glory days of Messi, Alba, Suarez and Busquets back at the Blaugrana a decade ago.
Now it appears the Herons are reversing course, perhaps with Messi more bought into the tactical approach now than he may have been under Martino. The early results certainly suggest it’s been the right move. But it’s fair to wonder what might have been had the Herons arrived at this conclusion to start 2025, when there potentially four trophies to compete for, rather than at the end of the season, where they’re desperately trying to win MLS Cup to avoid Messi’s first trophyless club campaign.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/ianquillen/2025/11/25/the-messi-20-era-at-inter-miami-may-have-already-started/
