Rafael Benitez has defended his rotation policy at Chelsea in the wake of Wednesday night's shock loss to bottom-of-the-table QPR.
The Blues were edged 1-0 by their West London rivals at Stamford Bridge without the likes of Juan Mata, Ashley Cole and Eden Hazard but Benitez insists he needs to rest players on occasions and suggests he will be doing it again as the season progresses.
"You cannot be criticised and praised for the same thing," said Benitez.
"Rotating players because we were playing so many games was really good.
"We had more players, we could use the squad and, after one game, they are saying, 'Oh, you were changing players'.
"We know how the players are, we know the level of our players, and we trust our players.
"They couldn't keep playing games and games because the risk of injuries and tiredness is there.
"The other day, I think that two or three of the players, they were a little bit more tired than the others and maybe that is the reason why we didn't play with the tempo that we want to play with."
