Manuel Pellegrini claimed it was not difficult to drop his captain Vincent Kompany for Manchester City's 2-0 win over Leicester.
The City manager said he wanted to "refresh" his team after he left the centre-back on the bench for the match at the Etihad Stadium and refused to confirm if he will return to the side for their next match at Burnley.
Kompany was culpable for goals scored by Barcelona's Luis Suarez and Liverpool's Jordan Henderson in his previous two appearances, while the Belgian struggled in defeats to Arsenal and Middlesbrough earlier this year.
But Pellegrini, who made five changes to hisside on Wednesday, argued that each of the players he omitted needed a rest and none were injured.
"It was not difficult because we needed to refresh the team today and thinking about a lot of things, I decided which was the best team," Pellegrini said in a postmatch news conference.
Asked specifically about Kompany's omission, Pellegrini replied: "For the same reason that Pablo Zabaleta, Vincent Kompany, Fernandinho, Samir Nasri and Edin Dzeko that were playing normally [were out].
"I think it was important to refresh the team mentally and physically after two difficult games. We have the squad we want so it was a good moment to refresh the team."
Pellegrini defended Wilfried Bony after the 25 million-pound striker missed four good chances to open his City account on his first start for the club.
He said: "It would have been better for [Bony] to score but it was important for him to start the game and it was also important for him have some chances. He worked very well for the whole game."
Leicester manager Nigel Pearson claimed his side should have had three penalties, citing the moment Bony put his arm in Jeff Schlupp's face and challenges on Andrej Kramaric by Joe Hart and Fernando in either half.
"Simple answer," he said. "[We should have had] three throughout the game, Kramaric in both halves, the second one you could probably say was a little bit more marginal, but there's contact. And of course the third one on the line is in the box so there we are."
Pearson complained about referee Bobby Madley, who had booked Kramaric for diving in January's win over Tottenham and renewed his call for technology to be used to help officials.
"I'm not talking about them tonight, I'm sorry," he added. "You can talk about them and ask the relevant authorities, I don't think there's any point of me talking about the referee. It was the same one as we had against Tottenham.
"I would use it as another opportunity to ask for the introduction of new technology. I do think it would be of value because it would help everybody.
"It would stop irritating managers and coaches alike. Apparently FIFA in their wisdom have decided to block it for another year, that's a disappointment but it probably says something about FIFA."
Pellegrini disputed his Leicester counterpart's argument by saying Hart got the ball.