Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club News

• Nickname:Wolves
• Founded:1877
• Manager:Terry Connor

• Ground:Molineux
• Capacity:28,525

Mick justifies United selection

16 Dec 2009 - 07:44:23

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Mick McCarthy has defended his controversial team selection for Tuesday's defeat at Manchester United after claiming he was justified in making 10 changes.

The Molineux club lost 3-0 at Old Trafford with goalkeeper Marcus Hahnemann the only survivor from their unexpected 1-0 win at White Hart Lane on Saturday.

Unhappy fans chanted "we want our money back" and "where is our first team?" but afterwards a defiant McCarthy insisted that the changes were necessary.

"We had a great result at Spurs and every player rated it 9 to 9.5/10 in terms of how hard it was," he explained.

"I need to protect them. If you have another match of that magnitude, you can't cope. We have big games coming."

Wolves' next game is a home clash with Burnley on Saturday and McCarthy claims he will ultimately be judged on whether he keeps the club in the Premier League this season.

He added: "I can understand the supporters' reaction but at the end of the season I will be judged on whether Wolves have stayed in the Premier League or not.

"We have 21 fit players and three players facing operations.

"The Spurs game really took it out of them. The 10 per cent chance of injury increases to 30-40 per cent if you have another game like that.

"I'm not prepared to get injuries before the weekend. You can't argue with the scoreline with United but there are some pluses."