Why do managers moan when they pick a weakened team?
It is happening more and more often nowadays. Top-ranking football managers are fielding weakened teams against perceived lower level opposition in cup matches, presumably to give their 'star' players a break from the hectic life of professional footballers. You know - those participants who get paid so much more than a living wage whether they play or not. The ones that train every day as a part of their job but then are deemed to be 'too tired' to turn out for a cup match. Not only is it running the risk of a team being on a hiding to nothing, it is also depriving (as in 'ripping off') all those supporters who go to such a game expecting to see their 'heroes' in real life instead of on the telly. All those fans pay hard-earned money to be crammed into a small, often non-League, ground only to find that the team of stars they have come to see in their (often) home town is full of peripheral squad players that nobody has ever heard of, resulting in the t...