Sampaoli: “I Didn’t Pick Icardi For World Cup Because We Had To Win Right Away”

In an interview with Marca, Former Argentine national team manager has explained the reasoning behind not playing Paulo Dybala or picking Mauro Icardi whatsoever for the summer’s World Cup.

“We had to win right away and I had a lot of players who had been to the final we played in Brazil. That is why I bet on the players I did. We had a plan for the short term, the medium term and the long term, with over 100 players involved. But after Russia everything ended. The World Cup was tough because we were obliged to win, and that meant the talent couldn’t express itself.

Sampaoli then made it clear that expectation clearly weighed on the team.

“We couldn’t play, quite simply because the only option was to win the World Cup and that meant it was hard to respond to adversity. The team always trained well and took to the pitch with conviction, but every game was suffering.”