MLS Winners and Losers: Lionel Messi brilliance can't save Inter Miami, LAFC sack Marc Dos Santos and never count out the Seattle Sounders

In a way, you kind of have to feel for everyone in MLS not named Leo Messi. Stick with us here. Basically, no matter how good you are, you will never be as good as him. That's a bit of a dreary thought. But it's true. Think of them: Evander, Sam Surridge, Thomas Muller, Anders Dreyer. All wonderful footballers. Just never up there. And don't let any trendy dudes on X tell you that the real MVP plays for Nashville. Grow up.

And with that, we arrive at Hany Mukhtar, who does indeed play for Nashville. The thing about Mukhtar is that he is almost too MLS-coded. The German is almost a caricature of an MLS playmaker. If you got a bunch of football scientists in a room and said "design me the perfect cliche MLS attacker," this is what they would produce. One-on-one defense? Nah. Elite attacking quality? In absolute abundance. Just enough work rate to get by? Yep. Mukhtar's defensive stats are wonderfully middling. He is bang average in defensive contributions, tackles, interceptions and clearances.

But in attack? There aren't really any holes. He has found the net 13 times from 9.4 xG. Few attacking players have completed more passes. His seven assists are a tidy contribution. And on Saturday he bagged twice to pace another wonderful Nashville win.

Well, that's unfortunate. So, it goes like this: LAFC aren't bad. But they aren't as good as they should be. Player for player, this is a team good enough to compete for MLS Cup. Right now, they are sixth in the West, and trending down. So, late Sunday, after a tepid loss to an admittedly impressive FC Dallas team, LAFC fired Marc Dos Santos, just nine months after they promoted the Canadian from assistant to head coach.

It's an interesting move. LAFC are a club with high standards and loads of quality. Dos Santos didn't make the most out of this team. That is a fact. But there are also just six games remaining in the regular season. Do they really want to take this risk now? And is it the wisest decision to sack a head coach when a number of key players are off on international duty? LAFC are a well-run organization who will, no doubt, have a plan here. It's just an unfortunate end for Dos Santos.

Andre Luiz was a big move from Sporting KC. It was also, somehow, a bit of an underwhelming one at the time. This is a club that had been linked with Cristiano Ronaldo and Mo Salah. Really, you're getting a guy who made 10 appearances at Olympiacos - and didn't find the net once?

Well, this is why this writer is not a sporting director. Because Luiz has been absolutely fantastic. Sporting KC are not the finished article by any means. This is still a rebuild and a half. But in five games, the forward has scored four and assisted one. He led the way to a 2-0 win over Houston Dynamo on Saturday. A sexy signing? Nope. But $18 million looks a bargain. Apologies to Sporting KC Sporting Director David Lee.

It was perhaps a little harsh on Rios Novo that Inter Miami went out and signed Dayne St. Clair this offseason. The Los Angeles-born goalie had done a fine job for the Herons in their playoff run last year, and made some big saves as Miami clinched MLS Cup. These are good things - and usually enough to retain a starting job.

But St. Clair came in, and Rios Novo was booted from the XI. And then, when St. Clair started making mistakes for fun, Rios Novo was brought back. Now, it seems to be something of an open competition - especially given St. Clair is on international duty. But in his first appearance since Aug. 15, Rios Novo struggled mightily. He could have saved Columbus' first goal, and made a pretty calamitous error to gift them a 99th-minute winner. A miserable evening, especially considering Lionel Messi's stunning free kick that leveled the game before his mistake.

This is a cruel sport sometimes. Whatever soccer God you may or may not believe in, they seem to be acting in some sort of conspiratorial manner against Brian Schmetzer. This guy has been the best coach in MLS for a decade, a constant for one of the league's most reliable franchises. But the injury bug has battered Seattle this year, and they went four whole months without winning a game in MLS (albeit with the caveat of a World Cup break).

Still, Seattle really should be down and out by now. Not so fast. They are now seven games undefeated, and after seeing off Minnesota United, 3-1, are back among the playoff spots. With the West so tightly packed - six points separate sixth through ninth - a few more wins could see Seattle avoid a wildcard game. That would be improbable for a team that looked doomed two months ago.

So, there are two ways of looking at this. Either MLS forwards are really, really, really good - or defending in this league is shambolic. There's no "right" answer here. Sure, the gulf in quality between the attackers and defenders here is frightening at times. But relative to the rest of the world, MLS's defense, in general, is calamitous.

Take Miami, for example. They were a mess against Columbus this weekend, conceded twice, and blamed the refs. Then there was Vancouver's aversion to marking to gift-wrap a late goal to DC United. And then, there was this from Orlando City.