Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola must start Rico Lewis in tomorrow’s FA Cup clash against Huddersfield Town.
With the Citizens having a rare week in their season where they’ve not had a midweek game to play, they are back in action on Sunday afternoon as they welcome the Terriers to the Etihad Stadium for a clash in the third round of the FA Cup.
In terms of what Guardiola’s starting XI could look like for this game, one name that we feel should be in it on this occasion is Lewis.
Lewis must start against Huddersfield
In his latest press conference, Guardiola revealed that several players, including the likes of Kalvin Phillips, Bernardo Silva and Matheus Nunes have been suffering with an illness recently and could be unavailable for Sunday’s game.
The City boss also revealed that Rodri has been away from the club recently to spend time with his family in Spain following the death of his grandmother and could also miss the match.
Therefore, with so many midfield options potentially out of the picture this weekend, this is where Lewis could step up and do a job for his side.
Having featured in a midfield role on numerous occasions this season, doing so on Sunday would be something the 19-year-old is rather familiar with.
Back in November, Guardiola described the Englishman’s performance in City’s 3-2 win over RB Leipzig in the Champions League as “exceptional,” which shows how capable the youngster is in terms of delivering strong performances when called upon.
In fact, Lewis completed the full 90 minutes in all but one of the club’s Champions League group games earlier this season, proving how much faith his manager has in him.
Therefore, we feel that it should be no trouble for Guardiola to include the teenager in his starting XI for tomorrow’s match against Huddersfield.
