'I’ve never seen Miami with Messi on the field look this good' - Taylor Twellman praises Javier Mascherano for dropping Luis Suarez in Inter Miami’s playoff win

Twellman said Mascherano was always the type to make a call like this, describing him as bold and brash even during his playing days. 

“When you really look at Javier Mascherano, it’s very difficult for people, in our line of work, to disassociate Javier Mascherano as a player to then all of a sudden Mascherano as a manager,” Twellman said in a Apple TV conference call to promote the Conference Finals. “Cause we don’t have a ton of proof, we don’t have a ton of stuff to go off of. But you don’t lose, a majority of people who turn from player to coaches, you don’t lose who you are.

“Now Javier Mascherano… was always going to have the guts to do it. Now, freedom is a different way of putting it because, naturally, you look at Suarez and his pedigree and his profile. That’s very difficult to do. However, what everyone is forgetting is that Suarez was suspended after the Leagues Cup fiasco. They had games without Luis Suarez; the difference now was that [Mateo] Silvetti hadn’t integrated himself at a level that he is now, neither had Baltasar Rodríguez, neither had Rodrigo De Paul."

According to Twellman, Miami’s recent clean sheets show that improved player integration - not Suárez’s absence alone - is the decisive difference from earlier, less cohesive matches.

“You can always make the argument that starting Suarez was fine and was completely confirmed in the sense the way they were the rest of the year,” Twellman continued. “However, at the end of the Nashville game, and I’ve done more Messi games than anyone, I’ve never seen Miami and Messi on the field together in a game like that be as defensively sound, and I would use a better word than that, competent in their structure.

“They’ve never had a clean sheet in the playoffs; they’ve had two in a row. That’s not a coincidence. A coincidence is that Rodriguez is healthy, Silvetti has now been integrated, (Rocco) Ríos Novo is a better goalkeeper for what they want to do than Ustari, the balance of the team is better now than it was going into the Leagues Cup final.”

Twellman credited Mascherano with identifying Miami’s weaknesses and making decisive changes that enhanced the team’s overall balance.

“I think he has done a fantastic job,” Twellman said. “I really think he has earned my attention, that’s the wrong way to put it. He has really got my attention with the ability to see what they were in the Leagues Cup final, where Seattle really got under their skin, and they were the better team on the day...But Seattle was really good that day.

“He’s figured out where they were. I think they gave up five goals to Chicago, [and] he immediately got rid of Ustari and Rios Novo has been in there. Against Nashville in Game 3, he told Busquets ‘In possession, I want to go to three at the back, you have the freedom to go forward, I want Rodrigo De Paul to be further up the field. So he’s made little tweaks there that have really got my attention.

Twellman was unsurprised by the choice to bench Suarez, viewing it as a necessary step in the team’s evolution. Not only that, but he also revealed that New York City FC are preparing to face a different Inter Miami team as compared to the regular season because of the changes.

“I, for one, was not surprised….I was not surprised Javier Mascherano sat Suarez, and the reason why is I go back to my original point,” Twellman said. ”I’ve never seen Miami with Messi on the field look this good, I just haven’t. And it doesn’t mean the best players are playing, it doesn’t…Having spoken with New York City people in seeing that, they’re preparing for a different Miami team than they were when they played them at the beginning of the year, they’re a different team.”

Inter Miami will face New York City FC in the Western Conference final on Nov. 29 at Chase Stadium in a single elimination game.