Manchester city boss Manuel Pellegrini has declared that he will feed to a young side if Man City's FA Cup fifth-round tie at Chelsea remains on a Sunday. Pellegrini
said: "I'm very worried for a lot of things. First and foremost, if we
have to play that game on that Sunday, we will not play with our
[full-strength] team, we will play with a young team.
"We have to
travel to Ukraine on Monday, so I don't see any reason why we can't play
on the Saturday. Chelsea play their Champions League game on the
Tuesday before.
"So if we have to play on the Sunday, we will have to see which players will have to play.
"I don't want to analyse why, but I think if we have to play against Chelsea four days before, we should play on the Saturday.
"If
we play on the Sunday, we have to put Manchester City's interests
first. For me, I must do what I feel is best for the club, to play with
the strongest team we can in the Champions League.
"Also, if we
continue in the FA Cup, we will have to postpone two Premier League
games, and there is no option to play those games in midweek."
A statement from the BBC read: "Despite
continued efforts to schedule Manchester City's FA Cup fifth-round visit
to Stamford Bridge on Saturday, conflicting fixtures and safety
concerns meant this was not possible, so Sunday was the only slot
available."
The FA did later comment, explaining the difficulties
it faced. An FA spokesperson said: "The FA has worked closely with our
broadcast partners and various public bodies to explore all avenues when
arranging the Emirates FA Cup fifth-round schedule, however, with
multiple teams playing in Europe on consecutive weeks it was very
difficult to manage the ties in a way to suit everyone.
There are
some fantastic fifth-round ties and the FA and its broadcast partners
want to give as many people as possible the opportunity to view these
games. Almost six million watched Derby's fourth-round tie with
Manchester United and more than six million saw Exeter host Liverpool in
round three."
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