Midfielder Julian Gressel said Lionel Messi demanded Inter Miami CF reach higher standards, going as far as to label ties throughout the season as "unacceptable."
"It's demanding [in the locker room with Messi]. You're talking about the player with the most wins in the history of the game," Gressel said on the Major League Journeymen podcast. "They're coming in and they're expecting the same and you as a teammate you kind of have to get accustomed to that and get used to that with Messi, [Luis]Suarez, [Sergio] Busquets and [Jordi] Alba.
"It's unacceptable to tie a game as simple as that. We tied a game earlier in the year and I remember him being really really upset in the locker room, he's like 'we shouldn't tie, we can't tie.'"
Gressel said at one point in the season, then-manager Gerardo Martino tried to step in and calm Messi down, telling him: "It's okay to draw sometimes, we can't just win everything, it's not how this league works."
"But for [Messi], his aura is that," Gressel added.
Inter Miami concluded the 2024 MLS campaign with the Supporters' Shield and set the league record for most points in a single season before losing to Atlanta United FC in the first round of playoffs. Though the team managed a historic 22-4-8 (W-L-D) record, Gressel emphasized tension would rise inside the locker room after a negative result and lead Surez to occasionally confront players about individual performances.
"When it comes to the game or when it comes to being serious, it's being serious and it's time," Gressel said. "If you're not doing your part, you're getting it, like you're hearing it. You notice they're not content. [Messi's] addressed other guys directly, he's more so quiet, but you have guys like Luis, who's a little bit more emotional. He's more outgoing in a sense emotionally outgoing like that, so you hear more from him.
"Messi will certainly come up to you and will talk to you more so rather than be in your face about things. So we definitely kind of see that demand."
The Herons fell to Atlanta at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Nov. 2 and Chase Stadium on Nov. 9 to see the 2024 campaign come to an end after a 2-1 loss in the teams' best-of-three series, leaving many on Miami in a state of shock.
"After the loss, the guys were distraught in the locker room. You have everybody kind of staring into nothing," Gressel said. "You just sit in the quiet and kind of in disbelief, but also very hesitant to like, 'whoa, like, what just happened.'"
Gressel, however, said he could see "warning signs" that Inter Miami would struggle in the postseason before the eventual elimination during the third match. Though the team scored a league-high 79 goals throughout the season, the backline conceded 49.
"I saw some warning signs throughout the last few weeks of the season," Gressel said. "All year long, we've given up too many chances and we've given up too many goals and that's all usually something that you have to fix before the playoffs in order to kind of make a deep run."
The team now heads into the offseason with the task of making 2024 roster decisions and finding a new head coach after Martino announced his resignation on Nov. 19.
