Inter Miami manager Tata Martino refused to discuss resting Luiz Suarez for Sunday’s game against LA Galaxy, despite the striker’s ongoing battle with a knee problem.
Suarez was walking with a noticeable limp in the latter stages of the team’s season-opening 2-0 win over Real Salt Lake on Wednesday.
The Uruguayan made his MLS debut and grabbed an assist, playing 90 minutes before being substituted in stoppage time.
The former Liverpool and Barcelona striker has not hidden the fact that he struggles to play regularly because of a knee issue that has plagued the latter stages of his career.
But, despite a grueling pre-season tour around the globe and a lack of rest, Martino hinted he would not be rotating for the weekend’s trip to California.
Tata Martino refused to discuss resting striker Luiz Suarez on Sunday after beating Salt Lake
Suarez appeared to be in pain by the end of the night and was seen with a noticeable limp
‘Most of the changes we had to make were for physical issues,’ the Miami coach said
‘Maybe we have to look at that but not for the second game of the season. No, no, no.
‘We are just starting to compete. Hopefully they will all be fine by Friday and whoever is ready will travel.’
Suarez finished the night with an assist he recorded in the 83rd minute that helped set up a goal for Diego Gomez.
The Uruguayan nearly ended up picking up a goal for himself in his MLS debut but will surely regret sending his point-blank chance into the foot of Salt Lake goalkeeper Zac MacMath.
‘I had been saying since we got back from Japan two weeks ago that we needed to have more training sessions together for them to rediscover their rhythm,’ Martino said of Messi and Suarez.
‘In their case, they know each other well, but it takes time for them to find that connection again that they had in Barcelona.’
The veteran Uruguayan assisted Diego Gomez for the team’s second goal of the night
Despite not finding his way onto the scoresheet Suarez did not seem to be too down on himself following the game.
‘I knew I was going to face tough competition (in MLS),’ Suarez said through an interpreter after his first game in the league.
‘And Inter Miami, being one of the favorites for the title, we knew we were going to play always against full force.’
Suarez and Miami will get another full force showing on Sunday when they make the cross-country trip to California to face off against the LA Galaxy.
‘I think that we have to continue building week by week. Today Nico Freire didn’t play, the midfielder that all of you maybe have seen around here hasn’t joined us yet, so first of all I would like for us to have all of our players as soon as possible. Surely Benja Cremaschi, Franco Negri, truly those are players that within our structure [are important],’ Martino said of the match.
‘In a match like today’s in which it looked like we had to do 1- substitutions and not five, having the depth in the roster [is important]. So we need to get the results that allow us to get to a point that when we have everyone, we can think of maintaining our form.
Robert Taylor scored the game’s opening goal after he was played through by Lionel Messi
Martino was not overly impressed by some of his team’s play but they escaped with a win
‘In a match like today’s in which it looked like we had to do 1- substitutions and not five, having the depth in the roster [is important]. So we need to get the results that allow us to get to a point that when we have everyone, we can think of maintaining our form.
‘Because additionally sometimes maintaining this form is linked with the starters and substitutes, and sometimes substitutes worsen or improve the team’s performance. We need to find that when we do substitutions, the team’s performance has to remain the same.
‘That wasn’t the case today, because the team did not worsen because of the substitutions, but because we started the second half badly and we made many mistakes coming out of the back, but having a full roster always generates another sort of confidence for absolutely everything.’
