Source: SKY_Sports
Rio - We have to use squad
Rio Ferdinand defended the Manchester United team selection after the FA Cup semi-final defeat by Everton at Wembley.
United boss Sir Alex Ferguson left several of his big names, including Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo, back in Manchester as his side looked to book an FA Cup final meeting with Chelsea.
Ferdinand and central defensive partner Nemanja Vidic were the only automatic first-choice players in the side as Ferguson gave his younger players a chance.
Though United drew 0-0 over 120 minutes, Everton prevailed in a penalty shoot-out, with Ferdinand one of the players to be denied by former team-mate Tim Howard.
Ferguson was reluctant to risk the fitness of Rooney et al, and Ferdinand believes the manager was right to rotate his squad, with the Premier League and UEFA Champions League still up for grabs.
Big squad
"Do you mean the players are not good enough?" Ferdinand told Sky Sports News when asked if the selection showed a lack of respect towards the FA Cup.
He added: "It's not like we're fighting on just one front, we've got different things to go for, so you can't use the same players every week.
"We've got a big squad and we've got to use that. There's a reason for having big squads."
Ferdinand praised the performances of the young players in the United side and conceded it may have been the club's turn to lose on penalties after Champions League and Carling Cup successes in the past 12 months.
"You can't win everything on penalties and we've been very fortunate in the last couple of years to win quite a few shoot-outs, and you can't always win them," he continued.
"It's disappointing today, but there are some very good positives we can take out of the game in terms of obviously not the result, but the young lads showed themselves to be worthy of playing in the Man Utd shirt.
"Lads like Welbeck, the two twins (Rafael and Fabio), Gibbo (Darron Gibson), all of them. Kiko (Federico Macheda) as well, he's 17 years old.
"In that respect you can take the positives, although it's never nice to lose a semi-final."
