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Versatile Micah happy to be flexible

The Independent

"Richards insists City are tough enough"

Micah Richards is willing to continue playing out of position at left-back for Manchester City – despite struggling badly at times during Sunday's 2-0 defeat at Bolton Wanderers.

Richards, 20, enjoyed a meteoric start to his career for club and country but, after sustaining a knee injury in February, he has yet to re-establish himself in the senior England set-up and has not featured under Fabio Capello. The City manager, Mark Hughes, has deployed Richards at left-back in the past two games in an attempt to bring more solidity to his side.

But successive 2-0 defeats at the hands of Middlesbrough and Bolton further exposed City's flaws and, at the Reebok Stadium, Richards appeared more eager to attack than defend in front of the watching Capello.

Richards went missing when Gretar Steinsson crossed for Ricardo Gardner to score Bolton's opening goal, yet he claimed later: "It's always good to be versatile and playing left-back allows me to show my versatility. I enjoy playing anywhere on the pitch, and though sometimes it's a little harder playing there than at right-back as I'm naturally right-footed, if it benefits the team then I'm happy to play there."

More worrying for Hughes was his side's lack of desire against a Bolton outfit who had not previously won at home since the opening day of the season. Hughes' men have won just once in six league games and Richards admitted: "I don't think we did enough to win. When you go away to Bolton you expect a physical encounter, which is what it was, and I just don't think we were at the races."

Hughes said the defeat to Bolton raised questions about his side's mental strength, especially away from the City of Manchester Stadium. Since winning at Sunderland at the end of August, City have collected one point from four away matches.

But Richards did not accept his manager's claim that his players lacked mental fortitude. Richards added: "I think it's just a phase we're going through. I think we need to get a win away from home and there won't be any problems."