West Ham United’s Edson Álvarez has revealed he was surprised with Gerardo Martino’s decision to leave him on the bench for Mexico’s World Cup clash against Argentina.
El Tri were knocked out of the group stage of the tournament and the midfielder made two appearances at the World Cup.
The West Ham star has been speaking to Caliente TV, relayed by AS, and one of the topics he talked about was Mexico’s poor performances at the World Cup.
Mexico had a goalless draw against Poland, followed by a defeat to Argentina and a victory over Saudi Arabia. Martino was then in charge of El Tri and the 26-year-old was an unused substitute against the eventual winners.
Álvarez has opened up about the ‘bad treatment received’ from the Argentine. Although he wasn’t expecting to be a starter for his country, the player has now explained why the former Barcelona manager’s choices surprised him.
“At the World Cup, I didn’t feel like an undisputed starter, but I felt like I had a good chance of playing,” he said.
“In the match against Poland the relationship was the same as always. The game against Argentina arrives and it’s like I was a stranger, as if I had never seen myself play, I didn’t start and I didn’t play.”
Despite this, the Mexico international has stated that he’s pleased to have played under Martino.
“I’m grateful, at some point I had a great relationship with ‘Tata’. A relationship in which he would come with me, we chatted, we shared ideas. He’s a person who really likes to talk about football and was very interested in the Ajax system, we shared many things,” Álvarez explained.
The player joined West Ham from Ajax last summer and has managed two goals and two assists from 35 games this season.
