Chelsea midfielder Ruben Loftus-Cheek was surprised to be played in a new position for their FA Cup win at Luton.
Loftus-Cheek was as surprised as anyone to find himself lining up at centre-back for the game.
“It was very tough, especially going down quite early and the fans getting behind them,” he told the club’s website. “You saw in the players’ eyes that it gave them a lot of hope and that’s what we didn’t want early on.
“We wanted to keep the fans quiet and show what we’re about early on so we could kind of diminish their hope of getting a result. To go 2-1 down as well, it was a difficult night but credit to the boys that we clawed our way back and got the job done in the end.
“It’s enjoyable to play in a game like this with these conditions. It doesn’t really look enjoyable to play in, but when the conditions are like this and the stadium’s loud, that’s what you want to play in as a footballer.
“It’s a very nice experience to play in when you look back at it, so well done to the boys and we’re into the next round. The Chelsea fans were fantastic, we heard them throughout and they gave us the support we needed to claw our way back. So thank you to the Chelsea fans.”
On playing at centre-half, Loftus-Cheek continued: “It came as a surprise to me! I found out the day before that I might have to do a job there. A lot of our defenders have got niggles and there’s some players who played 120 minutes plus penalties at the weekend.
“You have to do a job where you get put and I still tried to bring my qualities and what makes me Loftus-Cheek to the game. That’s all I could do but I really enjoyed it.
“I played centre-back when I was 12 or 13, for a season or two, and I never liked it! But tonight was a bit different, I played as a centre-back in a back four when I was younger. This time I had more licence to step out and create the attack from the start, so I enjoyed it.”
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