McCarthy defends selection

Mick McCarthy defended his team selection as a weakened Wolves were easily beaten by Manchester United after claiming his regular first XI would have been unable to cope with Tuesday's fixture.

Wanderers travelled to Old Trafford on the back of successive wins, but that record was short lived as the champions put the under-strength West Midlanders to the sword in a 3-0 victory.

The promoted side slipped back into the bottom three and McCarthy faces an onslaught of criticism for changing the whole of his outfield line-up.

Premier League regulations state that a club should field a full-strength side for every league game but McCarthy has defended his decision, insisting he had to protect his players from burn-out.

"We had a great result on Saturday and in terms of exertion and how hard it was, they rate it every time and it was between nine and 10 on all the marks," the Wolves boss told Sky Sports.

"That's how much it took out of them (and) if they have another game of that magnitude - I don't think we can cope with it.

Protect

"I've got 21 fit players, I've got three players just having operations - I need to protect them - we've got a lot of games coming up."

Reflecting on the game itself, McCarthy added: "Some of it was good, some of it alright - I made changes (because) I don't think we can do two nine-out-of-ten performances back-to-back then back-to-back again.

"I thought (Michael) Mancienne and (Andrew) Surman were outstanding and Kev Foley but at the end of it we've been beaten 3-0. But there is some pluses certainly."

Wolves found themselves in some promising situations when the score was goalless and George Friend, in particular, will lament his missed chance to put the visitors ahead.

And McCarthy felt his side lacked the conviction to take advantage of their opportunities in what could have put an entirely different spin on the game.

"I think it's that bit of belief at the start of it to actually believe we can do it and score and take something from here and we didn't and of course they get a penalty which I thought we were doing alright until the penalty went in," he added.