Rico Lewis feels accidents to a few of his Manchester Metropolis team-mates have affected his type this season, and is hoping to get extra probabilities to play in midfield sooner or later.
Lewis opened the scoring as Metropolis reached the FA Cup last for the 14th time of their historical past and the fourth time underneath Pep Guardiola on Sunday, beating Nottingham Forest 2-0 within the final 4 at Wembley Stadium.
On the age of 20 years and 157 days, Lewis turned the youngest participant to attain for Metropolis at Wembley since Steve MacKenzie within the 1981 FA Cup last versus Tottenham (19 years, 172 days).
However even an FA Cup triumph wouldn’t be sufficient to make Metropolis’s season successful, with varied accidents to Rodri, John Stones, Ruben Dias and Erling Haaland derailing their Premier League title defence.
Lewis has made 41 appearances for Metropolis in all competitions this season, with solely Josko Gvardiol (48), Ilkay Gundogan (46), Bernardo Silva (44) and Savinho (42) having extra.
The England worldwide has began 32 occasions – placing him joint-sixth amongst all Metropolis gamers – and ranks fourth of their squad for minutes performed (2,987), scoring twice and offering 5 assists.
However the disruption in Metropolis’s ranks has precipitated him to grow to be one thing of a utility participant, taking part in 56% of his minutes at right-back, 17% at left-back, 22% in midfield and 5% on the wing.
“I feel it’s tough. It’s a bit unfortunate at sure occasions of the season the place you’re taking part in in video games the place you’ve not acquired everybody on the crew,” Lewis mentioned after Sunday’s recreation.
“You’ve acquired some folks injured so you’ll be able to’t play as usually as you’d do.
“The entire crew is discombobulated and stuff like that. It’s a part of soccer. I mentioned this even when it was going nicely.”
Lewis got here by Metropolis’s ranks as a full-back, however like fellow teenager Nico O’Reilly, may find yourself taking part in additional ahead.
Requested if he noticed his future in midfield, Lewis mentioned: “I need to play there. I get pleasure from taking part in in there. I feel I can have an effect on the sport there. I feel that’s the primary factor.
“I can do the defensive bit as nicely. I feel the extra I do play there, the extra I really feel comfy and the extra I’ll adapt to the place as nicely.”
Metropolis’s subsequent Premier League recreation pits them in opposition to Wolves on Friday, with matches in opposition to Southampton, Bournemouth and Fulham to observe, in addition to the FA Cup last in opposition to Crystal Palace on Could 17.