Jose Mourinho took full responsibility after AS Roma slumped to an embarrassing 6-1 defeat against Norwegian side Bodo/Glimt in the European Conference League on Thursday.
The Portuguese coach, who fielded a side full of understudies, had never previously seen one of his teams concede six goals.
"I decided to put out the side I did. It's my responsibility," Mourinho said.
"Obviously I did it with good intentions in mind, for two main reasons.
"On one hand, I wanted to give a chance to those players who have been working really hard but have not had much chance to play.
"On the other, considering the squad we have and all the games we have to play, I wanted to rest some of the players that have played in pretty much every game.
"On an artificial pitch, in weather conditions like these, I decided to rotate a lot of players.
"We lost to a side that was better than us. It's simple.
"The Bodo first team is better than the one that started the game for us." Roma are still one good shape to progress from the group stage of Europe's third-level club competition.
They are second in Group C with six points from three games, one behind leaders Bodo and three ahead of third-placed Zorya Luhansk.
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