Chelsea interim manager Rafael Benitez has hit out at the club's "impossible" fixture list ahead of a schedule of six games in just 16 days.
Saturday saw Chelsea play host to Southampton in the Premier League, just 48 hours before an FA Cup replay with Manchester United on Easter Monday.
The following week sees Chelsea travel to Rubin Kazan for the second leg of their Europa League tie, and a fuming Benitez told reporters: "Normally, if you have three days between games, you can see the players are tired. When it's two days, it's impossible.
"The main thing is using your eyes, your knowledge, the conversations with staff. Then I have to consider the positions of the players - and where the other sides have their key players as well - and prepare the game plan.
"You have to put things together rather than having just one priority because lots of things are an influence, including analysing the players and the scouts' reports.
"In terms of trying to prepare the tactics for the United game, that's fine, but physiologically it is much harder. You feel fine the day after a game but the second day is much harder and it will be really tough for everyone."
Manchester United rested several key players against Sunderland on Saturday ahead of Monday's Cup clash, and Benitez continued: "It is impossible to be fully fit for two games. All of them can play, but at which level?
"Sometimes you can win if you are not 100 per cent because you are just better than the other team but that depends on the position of the players who are tired and the opposition.
"Now we have to make these decisions. We know that if we win, it will be that we did the right thing. But if not, we'll be told, 'You made a mistake'."
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