Lionel Messi’s move away from PSG has been the talk of the town in recent weeks.
Barcelona struggled to bring the Argentine back to his boyhood club with the tight grip of Financial Fair Play.
Conversely, a move to Saudi Arabia would have been financially lucrative for the seven-time Ballon d’Or winner.
In the end, Messi decided to move to the MLS and sign with Inter Miami, with a reported deal worth around $54 million USD per season.
It is no secret that Inter Miami has been the brainchild of MLS pioneer David Beckham.
Beckham has been seeking a superstar to lead the way and revolutionise football in Miami for some time, driven by both financial and footballing considerations.
Beckham was quoted as saying all the way back in 2018, I think Miami needs a star. Miami would expect us to bring in a star. Thats what we plan on doing.
Besides the marketing and business aspects of the move, at 36 years of age this year, Messi will be looking to bring his experience and talent to help Inter Miami in the MLS establish a proper foothold in the Eastern Conference, currently sitting in 15th place.
With previous manager Phil Neville having been sacked just weeks ago, it remains to be seen who will replace the English manager and how Messi will fit into their plans.
What is for sure is that the Argentine will be the teams heartbeat and will undoubtedly play a pivotal role for Inter Miami for the rest of their campaign.
This Messi tactical analysis will be a team scout report, taking an in-depth look at how Messi will fit into Inter Miami tactics this season.
More specifically, the analysis examines how Christophe Galtier has utilized Messi at Paris Saint-Germain, Lionel Scalonis approach to maximizing his potential for Argentina, and how the next manager for Inter Miami might employ similar strategies to integrate Messi into their MLS tactics.
Replicating PSGs approach
Messi has undergone several positional changes throughout his career.
Breaking through originally under Frank Rijkaard at Barcelona as a fleet-footed right winger, he danced his way through the opposition.
Later, under Pep Guardiola, to get Messi into more potent and dangerous positions in and around the oppositions penalty box area, he was brought into more central areas.
At PSG, Galtier has experimented with various formations to accommodate his star-studded lineup, often deploying Messi as part of a front two or a narrow front three, with the intention of getting his star player into central areas around the pitch.
Understandably, Messi is often relieved of most defensive duties at this point in his career, especially given the Argentines incredible offensive output.
Whether PSG set up in a 4-4-2 diamond, or 3-4-2-1 formation, it is clear that the tactics behind Galtier’s implementation of Messi are to get him on the ball as often as possible in dangerous areas of the pitch to get the most out of him.
Against good opposition, this often means PSG leave Messi high up the pitch to conserve his energy when the team is defending.
This leaves the rest of the team sitting dee
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