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Mick McCarthy risked the wrath of the Premier League, its top clubs and his team’s supporters last night after Manchester United brushed aside a woefully understrength Wolverhampton Wanderers side at Old Trafford.
A comfortable 3-0 victory moved United level on points with Chelsea at the top of the table, although by far the biggest talking point centred on McCarthy’s team selection, which contained ten changes to the team that beat Tottenham Hotspur 1-0 at White Hart Lane at the weekend.
However, McCarthy launched a staunch defence of his decision to field a team whose ten outfield players had made a combined total of only 41 Barclays Premier League starts this season going into the game. He rejected suggestions that he had compromised the integrity of the competition and insisted that he was “not bothered” by the reaction it would generate.
Citing a long injury list and the importance of his team’s Premier League match at home to Burnley on Sunday, the Wolves manager claimed he had fielded “the best, fittest and strongest team” he could pick in the circumstances and argued that the controversy his selection caused would be long forgotten if he kept the Midlands club in the top flight this season.
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“My decisions will be judged on whether we stay in the Premier League and funnily enough I probably made some bad decisions last year — we had some bad performances — but no one remembers them strangely because we won the Championship,” McCarthy said. “If we stay up, everything is suddenly OK.
“I understand that [people may be unhappy] and I knew those questions would be asked when I made those decisions but what I can’t have is any more injuries but we still had some outstanding performances.
“I wonder whether Manchester United were disappointed with me when I played 3-5-2 at Chelsea? Did anybody suggest I gave Chelsea a bit of a chance doing that? Did anyone complain when I attacked Arsenal at our place and after 28 minutes we’d had great chances and hadn’t scored and then got slapped for four? So I’m not bothered about any reaction from anybody else. I make the decisions for what I think is the good of my players and the benefit of my club.”
Section E, rule 20 of the Premier League’s rules and regulations states that “in every league match each participating club shall field a full-strength team” but sources at the organisation indicated last night that it was “doubtful” action could be taken because of the emphasis on the squad system nowadays.
McCarthy also appeared to have triggered a backlash among his own supporters, who paid £42 each for a ticket. About 2,400 travelling fans directed chants of “We want our money back” at the manager.
“I can kind of understand that but that was my best team available,” McCarthy said. “I wasn’t planning on doing it but after Saturday when [the Wolves players] put the ratings down for how difficult the Spurs game was and they were all an average of 9½ and ten, we had to do that. We can’t do it Saturday-Tuesday at that level.”
Goals from Wayne Rooney, Nemanja Vidic and Antonio Valencia secured a comfortable win for United.
Aston Villa leapfrogged Arsenal to take third place with a comfortable 2-0 victory over Sunderland at the Stadium of Light. Birmingham City are up to sixth place after a 2-1 win over Blackburn Rovers at St Andrew’s.
Bolton Wanderers won the basement battle, beating West Ham United 3-1 at home to climb above Gianfranco Zola’s side — and Wolves — and out of the relegation zone.
A comfortable 3-0 victory moved United level on points with Chelsea at the top of the table, although by far the biggest talking point centred on McCarthy’s team selection, which contained ten changes to the team that beat Tottenham Hotspur 1-0 at White Hart Lane at the weekend.
However, McCarthy launched a staunch defence of his decision to field a team whose ten outfield players had made a combined total of only 41 Barclays Premier League starts this season going into the game. He rejected suggestions that he had compromised the integrity of the competition and insisted that he was “not bothered” by the reaction it would generate.
Citing a long injury list and the importance of his team’s Premier League match at home to Burnley on Sunday, the Wolves manager claimed he had fielded “the best, fittest and strongest team” he could pick in the circumstances and argued that the controversy his selection caused would be long forgotten if he kept the Midlands club in the top flight this season.
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“My decisions will be judged on whether we stay in the Premier League and funnily enough I probably made some bad decisions last year — we had some bad performances — but no one remembers them strangely because we won the Championship,” McCarthy said. “If we stay up, everything is suddenly OK.
“I understand that [people may be unhappy] and I knew those questions would be asked when I made those decisions but what I can’t have is any more injuries but we still had some outstanding performances.
“I wonder whether Manchester United were disappointed with me when I played 3-5-2 at Chelsea? Did anybody suggest I gave Chelsea a bit of a chance doing that? Did anyone complain when I attacked Arsenal at our place and after 28 minutes we’d had great chances and hadn’t scored and then got slapped for four? So I’m not bothered about any reaction from anybody else. I make the decisions for what I think is the good of my players and the benefit of my club.”
Section E, rule 20 of the Premier League’s rules and regulations states that “in every league match each participating club shall field a full-strength team” but sources at the organisation indicated last night that it was “doubtful” action could be taken because of the emphasis on the squad system nowadays.
McCarthy also appeared to have triggered a backlash among his own supporters, who paid £42 each for a ticket. About 2,400 travelling fans directed chants of “We want our money back” at the manager.
“I can kind of understand that but that was my best team available,” McCarthy said. “I wasn’t planning on doing it but after Saturday when [the Wolves players] put the ratings down for how difficult the Spurs game was and they were all an average of 9½ and ten, we had to do that. We can’t do it Saturday-Tuesday at that level.”
Goals from Wayne Rooney, Nemanja Vidic and Antonio Valencia secured a comfortable win for United.
Aston Villa leapfrogged Arsenal to take third place with a comfortable 2-0 victory over Sunderland at the Stadium of Light. Birmingham City are up to sixth place after a 2-1 win over Blackburn Rovers at St Andrew’s.
Bolton Wanderers won the basement battle, beating West Ham United 3-1 at home to climb above Gianfranco Zola’s side — and Wolves — and out of the relegation zone.
Paul Marin -19 is one thing, 20 is a whole other matter. It gets even worse if they win the UCL. *groan*. 
05/18/2011.MU fans naah cough, but all a unuh a vomit?-Lazie 1/11/2015
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