FC Dallas seek “collective” effort to stop Messi, Inter Miami | MLSSoccer.com

It’s also about corralling Messi, who formally joined Miami in mid-July and has delivered five goals and one assist in three matches. The seven-time Ballon d’Or winner has slotted onto the right wing, forming a strong partnership with Josef Martínez at striker and Robert Taylor at left wing in head coach Gerardo “Tata” Martino’s 4-3-3 formation.

Yet for Dallas head coach Nico Estévez, it’s not just about limiting arguably the greatest player of all time.

“Messi has a lot of strength, but he also has weaknesses,” said Estévez. “We have to exploit that. Every player in Miami we do the same. Every player in Miami deserves the respect that we have to treat them as who they are, professional players that are good. We treat Inter Miami as a collective.

“Of course, as with any other team that we analyze, we try to pick any individual, special talent. We’ve done that before with LAFC and Carlos Vela, [Dénis] Bouanga. We’ve done it before with Nashville and [Hany] Mukhtar. There are a lot of good players in the league. But we also think that the collective can beat the individual.”