Phil Neville: Dismantling ‘fractured’ team, benching Higuain were difficult decisions
Week after week, Inter Miami coach Phil Neville fired up his team with a similar pep talk. He would enter the locker room and inform his players of “who has written them off and who thinks they’re rubbish.”
Now, his Men in Pink are headed to the MLS playoffs after an improbable late-season surge. Neville says they are not done proving naysayers wrong.
He sat down with the Miami Herald for a season review last week, and opened up about locker-room dissension last season, his difficult decision to bench Gonzalo Higuain, a pivotal private meeting with four players, Higuain’s resurgence, and what he discovered about South Florida sports fans.
When asked to explain how his team became one of the surprise stories of the year, Neville pointed out an office window toward a black gate that surrounds the player parking lot.
“We’ve had a siege mentality all season; I’ve told the players ‘Anyone outside that little gate can’t hurt us,’ ” Neville said.
Inter Miami opens the playoffs on the road Monday night against defending MLS champion New York City FC (7 p.m., FS1, Fox Deportes).
“Our mindset doesn’t change, we’re massive underdogs,” Neville said. “But we’ve got momentum, confidence and spirit. Everyone has written us off. We’re proving people wrong and that’s our motivation. People say, ‘Oh, you made the playoffs that’s all you can do.’ Well, let’s make a run in the playoffs. Let’s surprise a few more people.”
Heading into this season, Neville’s second at the helm, there were plenty of doubters. The questions only grew after the team went winless in its first five games. Critics questioned whether Neville was up for the job, or whether he was the beneficiary of nepotism as team co-owner David Beckham was his former teammate at Manchester United and with the English national team.
Adding to the challenges was the fact that the team underwent a massive roster overhaul after getting hammered with MLS financial sanctions following an investigation that found the club violated league rules in constructing its 2020 team. Nineteen new players joined the team this season, the biggest turnover in league history.
The decision to rebuild the roster was not entirely motivated by finances, Neville said. He did not like the vibe of the locker room he inherited and felt change was necessary.
“We had superstars, great individual players, players who had won titles, but the togetherness was not there,” he said. “It was a team fractured, a team full of egos. If you ask me about a certain individual, I’d say, ‘A really good person’, but when you’re putting ingredients into a cake, if there’s some ingredients that don’t match, the cake’s not going to be nice. I felt as if there were too many people only worried about themselves and not the team. They weren’t hungry. They were here for the wrong reasons. They were getting paid a lot of money.”
The sanctions led to rumors of players being shopped. Distractions and dissension grew. Defender Nico Figal, reportedly in talks with Mexican club Tigres, lost his cool and was red carded during a 4-0 home loss to New York Red Bulls on Sept. 17, 2021. He missed the next few games. The team went on a six-game losing skid, including four straight shutouts.
“We beat Toronto on a Wednesday, and then we played Red Bulls at home and our season finished that night because things happened before the game that were just inconceivable from a team point of view,” Neville said, not elaborating. “The team was dead after that. From that moment on I was ripping up the team.”
Among the high-priced players who were replaced: Blaise Matuidi, Rodolfo Pizarro, Figal, Leandro Gonzalez Pirez and Lewis Morgan, who led the New York Red Bulls with 14 goals this season. Rising talent Christian Makoun was traded.
“Two decisions really hurt us: Lewis Morgan and Christian Makoun,” Neville said. “But the fee we got for Lewis [$1.2 million] helped us rebuild. The Makoun one got us [DeAndre] Yedlin. Those were the two if you’d have asked me, I’d have said, ‘No way. They’re our boys. They’re part of this club.’ They still message us when we win.”
Of all the pivotal moments that led to this year’s success, Neville said, “The biggest one was the decision we made in the offseason to clear out. From Day One I felt these were my boys, and we were going to fight.”
The team started to bond in Charleston, South Carolina, during a preseason tournament, which Miami won.
“That was the start of the journey,” he said. “It was that trip where everyone sang, ate together, players went on a night out together, we watched the Super Bowl together. The staff ran a bridge together. The team rituals started in Charleston.”
But they struggled early, and Higuain, the league’s third-highest paid player at $5.1 million a year, was in a funk. Meanwhile, 21-year-old newcomer Leo Campana was catching fire.
“I had to be brave, make some real big decisions and leaving Gonzalo out was one of them,” Neville said. “I felt for my own future at that time. It was me or him. He wasn’t performing. He wasn’t in a great place and all my words to the team about work ethic I had to back up with actions.”
Miami’s first win came in the sixth game of the season, 3-2 against New England. Higuain didn’t play. Campana scored a hat trick.
“Before the New England game, I said only one thing to them, we are 18 players all headed in the same direction. I think they understood the message loud and clear. From that moment onward I’ve had no doubt we’d make the playoffs.”
Winger Ariel Lassiter said: “I definitely think Phil plays a big role in our team spirit. But it also takes everyone in the squad to really buy into that. If you have one or two players that don’t, then it all falls apart.”
Higuain vowed to get back to peak form. The addition of playmaker Alejandro Pozuelo also motivated him. His fitness and attitude improved dramatically. He worked his way back into the starting lineup, scored 14 goals in the past 16 games, and is a finalist for MLS Comeback Player of the Year. When he announced two weeks ago that he will retire after the season, he said his struggles led to a renewed joy for the game.
“There were difficult conversations with Phil, but in the end, I realized I had to change my situation. The coaches, teammates and this club gave me back my love of futbol,” Higuain said. “I can now retire as I always dreamed, scoring goals and playing well.”
“He went from getting jeered by fans at home to every single player singing his name after the Orlando game,” Neville said of Higuain. “He carried the team at the biggest and best moments. Off the pitch more than on it. He’s leaving this club with an incredible legacy.”
Neville’s decision to play Higuain and Campana together came after a chat over coffee with Beckham, who agreed with him that the pairing gave the team the best chance of scoring.
The decision to move from a more defensive-minded formation to an attack-minded diamond was made after consulting with Yedlin, Gregore, Victor Ulloa and Christopher McVey. Neville diagrammed both options on a whiteboard and asked which they preferred. Without hesitation, they all pointed to the diamond.
A 3-1 loss to Chicago in early September was another pivotal moment.
“Chicago was when I earned my coin as a manager,” Neville said. “After that game there were people within the club that thought we were dead. Some media people said, ‘It’s over.’ ”
Neville leaned on the wisdom he gained from legendary Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson, who said of title chases: “You will drop points, but you have to hold your nerve.”
Neville urged his coaches and players to hold their nerve. They won the next four games and clinched a playoff spot with a sixth-place finish, much improved from last year’s 11th place.
But Neville has learned that South Florida fans, and Miami co-owners Jorge and Jose Mas, want more.
“People here only care about winners,” he said. “I’ve been to a Heat game and they’re losing in the fourth quarter, you go outside and the whole stadium’s outside. Second and third place is failure. We have to win. And we can. These players have performed miracles. Once you get on this kind of run, the stars align and it’s very difficult to stop. It’s time for a few more miracles.”
This story was originally published October 14, 2022 at 5:36 PM.