Ole Gunnar Solskjaer insist he has no regrets over his Manchester United team selection in the FA Cup quarter-final defeat at Leicester, saying he would pick the same team again if given the chance.
The Norwegian decided to rest a handful of his United regulars in Sunday’s 3-1 defeat, starting both Paul Pogba and Donny van de Beek, but sent on Bruno Fernandes, Luke Shaw, Edinson Cavani and Scott McTominay with 25 minutes left.
However, the team failed to advance into the semi-final after going down to Leicester City.
“I would have started the same team again,” Solskjaer said.
“We felt they had more than 45 minutes in them [Pogba and Van de Beek] and they are important players for us, that’s why we started them.
“Every team selection has reasons behind it, Bruno has played lots of football – he broke all his records physically on Thursday. He is a human being, he’s played a game every three or four days.
“It was a chance to start both Donny and Paul but the accumulation of games has caught up with us. With Bruno, he wants to play, but sometimes you have to make decisions for the benefit of the team.
“The accumulation of games has caught up with us.
“We picked a team that we felt would win the game or give us a foundation to win the game, players like Donny and Paul wouldn’t.
“You’re always disappointed at the end of the line in a cup run. We couldn’t find the normal spark, brightness and energy. All the games have maybe caught up with us. Thursday was a big night for us. Today we didn’t have that zip you need to create chances and stop goals.”
With the result, it means United only hope of silverware this season now comes in the form of the Europa League.
