The club has built quite a foundation with three massive signings, but those signings will need complementary pieces to let them thrive.
Inter Miami have spent the last few weeks assembling the Barcelona All-Stars. David Beckham's side is collecting Camp Nou icons like Infinity Stones. The club's got three now – Lionel Messi, Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba – if they can add Luis Suarez and Andres Iniesta, they may just snap the rest of MLS out of existence.
It's an exciting prospect, of course. The players the club has signed and may sign in the weeks to come are players that have played, and won, at the highest level. They're some of the best at their respective positions in a generation. How could they not thrive in MLS?
Building a winning team isn't that simple, though. MLS is no longer a retirement league and, even when it was, the league was tough to those that treated it like it was. Several of the game's greats have struggled once arriving in North America, overwhelmed by the pace of play, travel, weather and more.
That's not to say that Inter Miami's new superheroes will struggle too. They're great players with great mindsets that appear to be arriving in MLS with the best of intentions. However, Miami's path to success may not really be determined by Messi, Busquets and Alba, but rather the pieces they put around them. This club is in last place in the Eastern Conference, after all. There's so much work to be done from top to bottom.
Miami have made the big signings – and boy, have they been big – but how they go about uplifting the rest of their squad will ultimately define this team over the next few years.
GettyA general history lesson
MLS has had a long list of stars arrive since Beckham broke the mold back in 2007. Players like Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Thierry Henry, David Villa and Robbie Keane have dominated the league, showing why they were top stars during their time in Europe.
Others, though, have struggled, particularly in Busquets' position in midfield. Players like Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard and Andrea Pirlo – all icons of the game – had rough experiences after arriving in MLS at the ends of their careers.
NYCFC, who signed Villa, Lampard and Pirlo for their inaugural season, learned their lessons quickly. With Lampard and Pirlo together in midfield, the club had no legs in the center of the park. Defensively, Lampard and Pirlo simply couldn't keep up, with the former often injured, and NYCFC's midfield unit looked like a glorified traffic cone because of it.
Gerrard, meanwhile, struggled to keep up with the pace of play in the league, admitting the whole experience was tougher than he expected.
“It’s a lot better than I initially thought,” Gerrard told Eurosport International. “A lot of people talk about the MLS, about the level, but for me a lot of them are wrong. Until you come here and sample it yourself, you see how strong it is and how fit and professional the players are.
"Every single game is a different challenge. On the road, you come up against places and teams where it is very hot and very humid. Some teams play on astroturf. So, each game is very tricky and very difficult."
He added: “If people think they can come here just to have a holiday and retire, they are wrong, because they won’t perform well and they won’t do their team justice. I have had to come here and work hard and get fit, to make sure that I keep performing to play well.”
AdvertisementGettyModern times
Much has changed since Gerrard, Lampard and Pirlo left the league. MLS has only gotten younger, better and faster.
The average age of players in MLS is about 26 years old, with La Liga's being about 27. Homegrown players are popping up all over MLS, while the Designated Player rule is now often being used to target young, high-upside rising stars.
Players like Miguel Almiron, Taty Castellanos and Jhon Duran have been signed and solid for late transfer fees. Homegrown stars like Alphonso Davies, Ricardo Pepi, Tyler Adams and Brenden Aaronson are playing at a top level in Europe, too. Jesus Ferreira, Thiago Almada and Riqui Puig, meanwhile, are all young stars dominating in the here and now.
The league has rapidly evolved from a retirement league to a talent developer, with the league finding a new place in the global marketplace thanks to the rise of young stars like those named.
That's not to say there hasn't been a place for veteran stars. This isn't an absolute by any stretch. Familiar faces like Xherdan Shaqiri, Javier 'Chicharito' Hernandez, Lorenzo Insigne and Christian Benteke are in the league, after all. At the end of the day, there are different approaches to roster building and team construction, leaving a place for teams to add strong, veteran leadership in the form of older stars.
None of those named, though, are Messi, Busquets or Alba. That trio is as decorated as it comes. Still, all three will face some challenges in Miami.
Getty ImagesA look at Messi
MLS is one of the few leagues in modern soccer that still plays with a good ole' fashioned No. 10. The league is littered with them, many of them Argentinian. Luciano Acosta, Emmanuel Reynoso and Sebastian Driussi are all excellent. Carles Gil and Lucas Zelarayan do unthinkable things from an attacking midfield position.
Messi is undoubtedly better than all of those mentioned above. None of those players are even close to the World Cup winner. Messi is, obviously, a different level of player, one that just won everything in Qatar and could take home the Ballon d'Or.
On the field, Messi should, generally, be just fine. It remains to be seen if Tata Martino plays him as a winger or centrally but, either way, he'll have license to drift. He'll have to deal with some physicality from the lesser-talented players he'll be facing, but it's nothing he hasn't dealt with before while playing for Argentina, PSG and Barcelona.
Still, Miami could run into the problems PSG faces often throughout Messi's run. With Messi, Kylian Mbappe and Neymar leading the attack, the club got zero pressing from its front three. Argentina's team, meanwhile, was built around Messi, famously giving him a "bodyguard" in Rodrigo de Paul who would do the running for him.
That'll be key to getting the most of Messi: surrounding him with players who can run. And that leads us to Busquets…
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Getty ImagesIs Busquets the right fit?
There's no doubting Busquets quality. He's perhaps the most underrated player of his generation. As No.6s go, there are few who can go toe-to-toe with the ex-Barcelona man. There is that famous quote from Vicente del Bosque explaining his magic: "You watch the game, you do not see Busquets. You watch Busquets, you see the whole game."
The big problem, though, is that Busquets' big moments with Del Bosque came at the 2010 World Cup. In the years since, Busquets has been incredible, but time comes for us all.
Busquets is now 35 and very much on the tail end of his career. He was never known as an elite athlete, which makes his decline significantly more manageable. He was known, though, as an elite thinker, which is what has always drawn him to the brightest minds the game has to offer. That footballing intelligence won't abandon him anytime soon.
Still, there are some things you can't think your way out of. Busquets' talents can only go so far, especially with Messi offering so little defensively ahead of him. Miami will need runners if they are to survive against the athletes that tend to populate MLS midfields, and Busquets isn't that.
There are ways to counteract that. The Chicago Fire turned Bastian Schweinsteiger into a centerback in his final years, allowing him to still dictate play while hiding his lack of pace. Could that be the best way to get the most out of Busquets, maybe as the middle player in a back three? Maybe.
As a No.6, though, Busquets will face challenges, although those challenges could be made easier depending on who is played next to him. He'll need a pitbull on his side, for sure.
If Miami can get that right, though, there's no doubt what Busquets can do to impact a game. The good work he does may not be noticeable but, if Miami leave him exposed without the right pieces next to him, his decline over the coming years could be there for all to see.