Top teams playing first team against Lower league teams

Sorry if this has been brought up before but I've noticed that no matter what the Top division teams managers always send out there first team even against teams that are two or more divisions lower than them. I have just played Man city at Eastlands with Brighton in the 2nd round of the Carling cup and this was there team

GK: Given

RB: Richards

CB: Toure

CB: Lescott

LB: Bridge

RM: Altintop

CM: Ireland

CM: Barry

LM: De Jong

ST: Tevez

ST: Bellamy

now surely a premier league title contender would at least put a few youngsters or reserve players in the first team for a 2nd round Carling cup game at home to League 1 Brighton. I did a quick check on other premier league teams who played lower league opposition and it was the same story I hope if possible they can do something about this in FM11.

Perhaps they just want to win the Carling Cup? Lol

Yeh I thought about this alot this year, and also lack of rotation in general. You get one of the best players in the world getting season statistics like 11 apps and 9 goals 7.92 rating every season for their whole career because real madrid has an even better player aswell

edit : I said real madrid because its usually them that does this the worst with the most players

Well for a start this just isnt true. Man Utd always field a weakened team in the League Cup in the game. Also maybe the fact that City havent won anything for 34 years means they take every competition seriously.

Well for a start this just isnt true. Man Utd always field a weakened team in the League Cup in the game. Also maybe the fact that City havent won anything for 34 years means they take every competition seriously.

I can only go by what I've seen in my saves and what you have said has not been the case. IRL Man City have still played weakened teams in the cup games against lower league opposition even though they haven't won anything for 34 years they still would not send out a team as strong as that.

I can only go by what I've seen in my saves and what you have said has not been the case. IRL Man City have still played weakened teams in the cup games against lower league opposition even though they haven't won anything for 34 years they still would not send out a team as strong as that.

Well maybe they should seeing as they got turned over by West Brom

Im not sure if a team can be programmed to play weakened teams in certain competitions but in effect were talking about year old data here. After the money that was spent last year, City was expected to challenge for everything as they needed to get into europe. Last season, City played strong teams in the competition all the way to the semi final and lost. Your comparing real life matches from this year to a year old game. Look at last years games and compare.

I find it the opposite in my game, where they play teams which are too weak and end up embarrassed

GK: Given

RB: Richards

CB: Toure

CB: Lescott

LB: Bridge

RM: Altintop

CM: Ireland

CM: Barry

LM: De Jong

ST: Tevez

ST: Bellamy

Isn't that a fairly weak team for Man City?

I've seen teams pick weak sides in the CCC and FA Cup. If anything, I think they often pick teams that are too weak!

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Isn't that a fairly weak team for Man City?

Going by there first two league games no. this has pretty much been there first team but this is not just about Man City I've noticed that not a lot of top division managers shuffle the pack when it comes to cup games against lower league teams maybe it's just in my saves but I just wanted to find out why they do this.

i think this will be addressed in FM11. They said that they have made it so the AI (fans included) recognises that you have rested big players etc so maybe this will happen more often?