Aston Villa manager Gerard Houllier defended his team selection after seeing his side beaten 3-0 by Manchester City to exit the FA Cup. Villa started the game with Stewart Downing and Ashley Young both on the bench and several youngsters in the starting XI, but Houllier pointed to a number of international players to justify his selection.
“I started the game with three players up front, three internationals," Houllier told reporters. "Nathan Delfouneso is an international under-21 and he will probably play the tournament in June, Emile Heskey went to the World Cup, and he’s one of our top goalscorers when he was international until last summer and Gabriel Agbonlahor had been selected by Fabio Capello for the last game against Denmark.
The Frenchman also thought that his side played better than the 3-0 scoreline seemed to suggest, but pointed to City’s clinical finishing as the difference between the two sides.
“We have quality in the squad, we have an important game also against Bolton," Houllier added.
"But I don’t think it would have changed anything because we conceded a very cheap goal very quickly and after that for 15 minutes the team were a bit shaky, thinking about what happened last December here, but apart from the two goals I don’t think Brad Friedel had much work to do.
“We were beaten by a team that is better than us at the moment and was probably ruthless in terms of goal opportunities.”Houllier also suggested that more established first team stars may not have been able to overturn City, even if he thought the scoreline did flatter Roberto Mancini’s side slightly.
"I don't think Ashley Young or Stuart Downing would have avoided the first goal, which was very unfortunate," Houllier insisted. "After being down to 1-0 it was difficult.""I don't think we had a bad game. "I admit that we didn't hurt them enough [but] the score is very flattering for them."
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