Inter Miami exit interviews underway. Who will stay? Who will go? Here’s what we know
Inter Miami coach Phil Neville and his players hardly had time to celebrate their improbable 1-0 season-ending road win against the first-place New England Revolution on Sunday.
Neville said the mood in the locker room was festive, mixed feelings of joy and relief, but also “nervousness” about the future as a major roster shake-up is expected in the coming weeks and months.
The 2022 MLS season doesn’t kick off until Feb. 26, but for Inter Miami, it began in earnest Monday morning, when Neville and sporting director Chris Henderson held the first batch of individual player meetings to discuss who is and is not in the plans. More are scheduled for Tuesday.
Despite having the league’s most expensive payroll, and replacing Diego Alonso with Neville, Inter Miami failed to meet expectations for the second year in a row. This year’s team finished in 11th place in the Eastern Conference with 12 wins, five ties, 17 losses. The 2020 team ended the COVID-condensed season in 10th place with seven wins, three ties, 13 losses.
Complicating matters, Miami is facing hefty financial sanctions for the next two seasons after violating MLS’ salary and roster guidelines during 2020 – prior to Neville’s and Henderson’s arrivals. They must deal with a reduction of $2,271,250 in roster allocation dollars for 2022 and 2023.
Neville said big decisions are being made to upgrade the roster, make it “younger and fresher”, and fix some chemistry issues that permeated the locker room this season.
For example, it was obvious to anyone who followed the team closely that two of the three highest-paid players – Argentine forward Gonzalo Higuain and Mexican playmaker Rodolfo Pizarro – did not form a productive partnership. Pizarro was at his best and played more freely when Higuain was not on the field, such as early last season and during Sunday’s victory.
Higuain, the team’s leading scorer with 12 goals and seven assists, didn’t seem to trust anyone but his brother Federico to feed him the ball. When his brother wasn’t playing, he tended to drift back into the No. 10 position to help create offense and that invaded Pizarro’s space. Pizarro mentioned to reporters at midseason that he and Higuain needed to figure out how to play together. Higuain said he needed better service into the box. His body language often displayed his frustration with teammates.
Asked Sunday night if the team plays better without Higuain, Neville replied: “The thing we have to accept is playing with Gonzalo Higuain his expectations are to win and to play a style of football. It’s not that we played better without Gonzalo, it’s that we played as a group. The body language of the team was great.”
After Sunday’s win, Pizarro posted on Instagram: “Good win to end the season. It’s always easier when we’re all running and fighting together. A shame it came too late. Here’s to what comes next.”
To compensate for the sanctions, Miami will have to let go of at least a few higher-priced players.
Higuain and Blaise Matuidi, who scored his first goal of the season Sunday, will be 34 at the start of next season. Both have a year left on their contracts. Their age and salaries make them difficult to sell.
Higuain is the league’s third-highest paid player at $5.79 million per year and Matuidi’s base salary is $1.5 million but he reportedly makes nearly $4 million including image rights and other bonuses.
According to sources, other clubs have shown interest in Miami’s younger standouts such as Pizarro ($3.35 million), Leandro Gonzalez Pirez ($849,996), Nico Figal ($630,000) and Lewis Morgan ($553,125). Gonzalez Pirez confirmed that Vancouver approached him midseason, but Miami didn’t want to let him go and he wants to stay. Figal was pursued by Mexican club Tigres but no deal was made.
Among the other decisions is whether to retain the players whose contracts expire in December: Brek Shea, Victor Ulloa, Jay Chapman, John McCarthy, Sami Guediri, Ventura Alvarado.
Reports out of Brazil in the past few weeks said Inter Miami was in talks with midfielders Jean Mota of Santos and Raphael Veiga from Palmeiras. Mota is 28, Veiga is 26. Among the long list of players Miami is researching is Norwegian-American defender Tomas Totland from Norwegian team Tromso.
This story was originally published November 8, 2021 at 5:11 PM.