Chelsea legend John Terry has questioned Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola’s decision to rest some of his first team players in Saturday’s FA Cup semi-finals defeat to Liverpool at Wembley stadium.
The Reds emerged 3-2 winners and booked a first FA Cup final appearance since 2012.
City were without the likes of Kevin De Bruyne, Ederson, Aymeric Laporte, Rodri, Ruben Dias and Ilkay Gundogan.
The Spanish coach instead gave starting roles to Nathan Ake, Oleksandr Zinchenko, Jack Grealish, Fernandinho and American goalkeeper Zack Steffen.
And it was a first half to forget for City as Liverpool raced to a 3-0 lead thanks to a brace from Sadio Mane and ninth minute opener from Ibrahima Konate.
The Premier League champions pulled a goal back through Grealish before Bernardo Silva scored in added time but Liverpool held on to advance.
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And reacting to the City starting eleven, Terry slammed Guardiola for his decision to rotate his team.
“That is why you don’t rest or rotate your best players,” he wrote on Twitter.
“Play your best and strongest team!”
However, a fan Chris Houry with the Twitter handle @crhcapital, disagreed with Terry.
According to Chris:“Fair play! I would have thought a balance with rotation and managing fatigue would be the way to go but as an ex player and coach, it’s interesting your view is that playing the same team if you’re able to is optimal overall for results.“
But the former England international reacted by explaining why playing the best legs would have been the best decision.
He Tweeted:”The problem is resting players for the game which means they train the next day ? It’s bizarre, you might aswel play and then recover the following day or have a day off. I would always play my strongest team to win the games. Get 3-0 up then take them off or rest them.“
City would have to put the disappointment of the FA Cup ouster behind and focus on the Premier League and the Champions League.
They are just a point above Liverpool in the league table and will take on Real Madrid in the semi-finals of the Champions League.
