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Hello! It looks like Barcelona circa 2012. It’s actually Inter Miami prepped for 2025.
Mister Mascherano: Inter Miami’s new coach questioned over Messi friendship
The team-mate dynamic is never stranger than when it morphs into a player-coach relationship.
Gianluigi Buffon, Italy’s eminent goalkeeper, experienced this with Andrea Pirlo. For years, they covered the same blades of grass as the fiercest of friends. Then Pirlo became manager of Juventus and Buffon had to start calling him Mister.
It’s a delicate path which Javier Mascherano will tread as he gets his feet under the table at Inter Miami. The club’s new head coach was presented to the media for the first time yesterday and there’s no doubt he’s very much among friends in Florida. There’s no doubt either that being among friends is part of the reason he’s there.
Miami have Lionel Messi, obviously. But they have Luis Suarez, Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba too, and Mascherano’s arrival (albeit in a technical role) gives them a five-a-side line-up of Barcelona old boys, all of whom know each other intimately from Camp Nou.
That could be classed as an advantage; that Mascherano can automatically count on his friends’ trust and support. But a head coach gets nowhere without a sliver of ruthlessness, and I found this comment from Mascherano hard to move past: “I’m not going to jeopardize the relationship I’ve built with them over the years for a job. I’m not like that. Life goes on beyond football.” Hmm.
‘I’m convinced I’m qualified’
To take a step back quickly, Mascherano is Miami’s replacement for Gerardo Martino, who quit last month after the side’s stinking MLS Cup elimination.
Mascherano was a hard-nosed midfielder for top European sides and Argentina but he has no senior managerial track record; only coaching roles with Argentina’s youth players behind him. As Martino’s successor, he’s unproven.
The charge against Mascherano’s appointment, rather than Mascherano himself, is one of nepotism: that his qualifications mattered less than him being pals with Messi, or his ability to keep Messi sweet.
Messi and Mascherano playing together for Argentina (Catherine Ivill / Getty Images)
“People can have their opinion and those opinions are valid, clearly,” Mascherano said. “I’m convinced I’m qualified to coach this team. The relationship I have with Leo is one that I’ve never denied, and I’m not going to deny it now.”
Miami’s managing owner, Jorge Mas (top, left), claimed Mascherano won out from a shortlist of three, although the other two candidates weren’t identified. Mas is standing his ground, and he hasn’t denied that Messi was consulted in advance.
A past target
One thing I didn’t know, and which The Athletic’s Felipe Cardenas uncovered at yesterday’s unveiling, was that Mas tried to sign Mascherano in 2019, for Miami’s inaugural season. Mascherano told Argentinian outlet Diario Ole that personal reasons scuppered a transfer.
So, internally, the 40-year-old has proponents of his recruitment close at hand. But life is about to get very real for him, because there’s no way of lying low in MLS. As Felipe points out, media duties for a head coach in the U.S. are extensive. Mascherano will face plenty of scrutiny, in a job which offers no margin for error.
“One has to be brave,” he told Felipe, and Mascherano was never the retiring type. He’s about to face the test of whether a close friend can be a firm boss. The 2024 MLS season is just about done. Already, the narrative for 2025 is set.
News round-up
Fox in the box: New manager, same old Vardy finish
Jamie Vardy once stole the record of goals scored in consecutive Premier League games from Ruud van Nistelrooy (11 beating Van Nistelrooy’s 10) so it was fitting that he lit the fuse of the RVN era at Leicester City.
Van Nistelrooy’s first game as Foxes manager was only a minute old when Vardy slipped in behind, beat the offside flag, stormed onto a through ball and slotted home. Honestly, it’s like the same Vardy finish we’ve been watching for 100 years. I swear the 37-year-old will be going long after I’m dead.
For Van Nistelrooy, a 3-1 win over West Ham United was a smashing start to his reign. I can see his temperament and tactical ideas suiting Leicester quite nicely. He’ll progress more as a coach than he would have done as part of Ruben Amorim’s staff at Manchester United.
As for West Ham, I’m not rowing back from my description of them as rubbish yesterday. Yes, their expected goals (xG) figure cleared 3.0 last night but they don’t look like they know where they’re going, except back home to face Wolverhampton Wanderers next Monday. Lose that and Julen Lopetegui might be out of lives — assuming he isn’t already.
Relegation scrap, Amorim’s acid test
You’ll find sexier fixtures in the Premier League tonight than Everton versus Wolves, but none with more fear or loathing.
Both teams had bad weekends. Both are bottom four. Incur a fat lip this evening and there’ll be hell to pay, so I’d go buy some popcorn.
Manchester United’s trip to Arsenal is the box-office game, and we’ve previewed it on The Athletic FC podcast. I’m going with Arsenal by a couple of goals but it’ll be a valuable demonstration of how well Amorim can prep for a top side — and how quickly.
Liverpool head to Newcastle United, whose winger Anthony Gordon hasn’t really settled again after a summer in which he might have gone to Anfield, and Manchester City are desperately looking for any sort of win at home to Nottingham Forest.
We’ve drilled into the data beneath City’s decay. Among other things, the chances they’ve given up this season are better statistically than those conceded by any other Premier League club. You have to read that twice to believe it.
Catch a match (times ET/UK)
(Selected games)
Premier League (all Peacock Premium/Amazon Prime): Everton vs Wolves, 2.30pm/7.30pm; Manchester City vs Nottingham Forest, 2.30pm/7.30pm; Newcastle United vs Liverpool, 2.30pm/7.30pm; Southampton vs Chelsea, 2.30pm/7.30pm; Arsenal vs Manchester United, 3.15pm/8.15pm; Aston Villa vs Brentford, 3.15pm/8.15pm — also on Fubo.
La Liga: Athletic Club vs Real Madrid, 3pm/8pm — ESPN+, Fubo/Premier Sports.
Coppa Italia last 16: Fiorentina vs Empoli, 3pm/8pm — CBS, Paramount+, Amazon Prime/Premier Player.
Tremendous trivela: Yamal’s assist steals show in Barca romp
Lamine Yamal… just stop it. This assist for Raphinha in a 5-1 roasting of Mallorca was complete filth — one of those deliveries that nonchalantly defies physics.
His style of pass — struck with the outside of the boot — is known as a trivela. I wanted to know the origins of the word so I asked one of our Barca writers, Pol Ballus.
“Trivela is Portuguese,” Pol said but, beyond that, it’s blurry. Some think it’s a shortened form of trivelocidade, a concept in physics which would relate to the curve of the pass. Others think it’s connected to shoes worn by school kids in Porto back in the day — fivelas that let them strike the ball hard.
Pol’s going to carry on digging. In the meantime, enjoy Yamal’s assist on repeat.
Around The Athletic FC: No grounds for complaint in Germany
The terracing of the Bokelbergstadion remains (Richard Sutcliffe/The Athletic)
And finally…
Vincent Kompany must have seen the German DFB-Pokal as a likely route to a trophy for Bayern Munich, but no. Manuel Neuer sold their chance last night with a stupid red card in the 17th minute, shown for this wipeout of Bayer Leverkusen’s Jeremie Frimpong (above).
Nathan Tella picked 10-man Bayern off, and Neuer took the rap at the end of a 1-0 defeat. With a bodycheck like his, the 38-year-old could do worse than follow ex-Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech into ice hockey.
(Photo: Megan Briggs/Getty Images)
