Neville: Inter Miami needs more ‘ruthlessness’ from forwards vs. Portland on Sunday
It was 55 degrees and raining when the Inter Miami flight arrived in Portland, Ore., on Thursday night, weather familiar to the team’s English coach Phil Neville but quite different from the scorching hot South Florida climate the team typically trains in.
Neville believes the change of scenery and five days traveling together will unite the team as its quest for a playoff spot continues Sunday with a game against the surging Portland Timbers (5:30 p.m., FS1, Fox Deportes).
It is Miami’s first extended road trip all season and comes on the heels of three consecutive losses. Players and coaches bonded over dinner at a Portland restaurant Thursday night as they celebrated Lewis Morgan’s birthday.
Neville said “food is a big source of happiness” for a team, and he feels the collective spirit improved since the 1-0 loss at Atlanta on Wednesday.
“When you take them into a different environment, take the Inter Miami clothes off and put jeans and t-shirts on, you see different personalities and characters within the squad,” Neville said. “That’s very valuable as a manager. You find out what makes people tick, what their insecurities are or what their family’s like, their ambitions, even mundane things like do they have a dog or cat. It’s a more relaxed environment. They’re having a conversation with a manager that’s not based around selection or judging them on their performance.”
Once they returned to training Friday, it was back to business. Miami faces a tall task against a talented, counter-attacking Timbers team that is unbeaten in the past seven games and in fourth place in the Western Conference.
Miami is 10th in the East with eight games remaining. The top seven make the playoffs.
Defender Nico Figal and midfielder Gregore return to the Miami lineup after suspensions, which should help, and midfielder Victor Ulloa is expected back from a quad strain.
Miami is the lowest-scoring team in MLS with 25 goals over 26 games (one in the past three games) and will be desperate to score on Sunday. Neville said the team’s lack of clinical finishing has been a problem all season and was the reason they lost against Atlanta.
“It was really frustrating because we got in some really, really good positions,” he said. “I’ve got to say, the players we expect to make the final pass, the players we expect to have that composure didn’t have it the other night. Those are demands we are putting on the team today — Gonzalo [Higuain], Rodolfo [Pizarro], Lewis, Kieran [Gibbs], Robbie Robinson. These are players that have to start performing in the final third for us. It’s as simple as that… Getting goals and assists is what they are paid to do.
“Can we have the composure to make the extra pass? How badly do we want to score? On the road, you’re only going to get three or four chances maximum. You have to take the opportunities that come your way. That’s what teams have done to us.”
Neville said he rewatched Miami’s 5-0 home loss to New England “a thousand times” and it boiled down to this: “They have five chances, they score five goals. That’s the ruthlessness the best teams have. There’s no more margin for error for Inter Miami.”
The other challenge is avoiding suspensions. Gregore and Leandro Gonzalez Pirez lead MLS in yellow cards, and both were suspended from recent games, as was Figal.
“We have too many players that have missed games through suspension this year and that cost us dearly, particularly in the previous three games,” Neville said. “We need to keep everyone on the pitch, need better discipline.”
Gonzalez Pirez acknowledged that he has a reputation as an aggressive defender, and feels it sometimes leads to unwarranted cautions. He said Inter Miami as a team is held to different standards by some officials, citing Gregore’s recent red card, which was rescinded, but he did not want to elaborate.
“It’s not in my best interest to talk about it,” he said. “But it is something we’re aware of and we have to be careful because it’s important to play with 11 players. Right now, the team mood is good. We had dinner together, laughed, celebrated Lewis’ birthday. Nico will be back, and he’s a very important player. I expect a great game Sunday.”