82 | Rico Lewis - 2025/26

Alan Harper's Tash said:
Rico’s superpower is finding space between the lines. He’s absurdly good at that. Just look at the first goal today. He found the weakness in Wolves’ structure.

He’s 20. He’s trusted more at that age than any other academy graduate, including Foden.

He was overplayed last season due to injuries and that meant he played in games that he wouldn’t have as the physical mismatch was too great, which affected his morale and he was probably knackered too.

I know you don’t rate him and that’s fine, but I think his intelligence, movement and quick passing will make him a top notch number 8 in a few years.

Until then, he’s a utility player who we use as an inverted full back and occasional 8. He’s club trained, doesn’t make a fuss about game time and loves the club.
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I truly wanted him to become club legend but we saw even better talents departing from the club because they didn’t reach the level we demand.

I don’t think that finding space is a superpower. It made our game much slower and we developed meaningless never ending slow and short passing. Much aggressive and much quicker teams killed us last season.

I am not telling Rico should leave the club immediately. I am disappointed with the same plan Pep has for Rico. Inverting right back is never going to work for him as he hasn’t physicality to play it with the quality we need to be the best in the league. Even today we were very vulnerable for at least 30min. I had a feeling we miss 1 player in the defensive line.

So, we obviously disagree
but
I really wanted you to be the one who’s right on the end. I honestly doubt it.
 
Alan Harper's Tash said:
Rico’s superpower is finding space between the lines. He’s absurdly good at that. Just look at the first goal today. He found the weakness in Wolves’ structure.

He’s 20. He’s trusted more at that age than any other academy graduate, including Foden.

He was overplayed last season due to injuries and that meant he played in games that he wouldn’t have as the physical mismatch was too great, which affected his morale and he was probably knackered too.

I know you don’t rate him and that’s fine, but I think his intelligence, movement and quick passing will make him a top notch number 8 in a few years.

Until then, he’s a utility player who we use as an inverted full back and occasional 8. He’s club trained, doesn’t make a fuss about game time and loves the club.
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If I had a pound for every time someone mentions his age on here. It’s like Bellingham, but more so.

Not gonna get into a full discussion on his strengths and weaknesses now, esp hours after a really commendable opening day performance, but just to say, as much as I agree with your pov on many things on here pal, I really do think your last sentence whilst true, is and should be completely irrelevant in terms of whether he has a future in the team/is sold or not.
 
chesterbells said:
If I had a pound for every time someone mentions his age on here. It’s like Bellingham, but more so.

Not gonna get into a full discussion on his strengths and weaknesses now, esp hours after a really commendable opening day performance, but just to say, as much as I agree with your pov on many things on here pal, I really do think your last sentence whilst true, is and should be completely irrelevant in terms of whether he has a future in the team/is sold or not.
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Age does need to be considered more in defenders and midfielders. You need maturity in those positions.

He’s seemingly happy with a squad role, so he’s like a free squad player.

If he wasn’t club trained or association trained, then I’d be closer to your line of thinking.

I don’t see Livramento as a better option and we’d have to spend £50m extra to get him.
 
I was a huge critic of Lewis last season - but that's two solid performances in a row now for Lewis - in our friendly v. Palermo and now in our opener v. Wolves.
 
Quite rightly, reindeers will get the plaudits but Rico‘s ball across was perfection too. They’re not as easy as they look.
 
FogBlueInSanFran said:
Sure wish the POTUS that you support felt that way. Instead, he fires people who dare to disagree with him. Not even facts or data contrary to the narrative are allowed.

Another example of your football vs politics hypocrisy.
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So he is a lot like you then? :)
 
DD93 said:
I think he should be sold anyway...

He had performances like this in 22/23, 23/24, 24/25 but fullback needs pace and height and strength and Rico has neither..

We need player like Kyle Walker and I see Khusanov as a perfect replacement.

If Stones is fit he can do that inverted role in midfield and play like he played in treble season. We also have Akanji for that role.

Matheus at least has pace and height and cover for some mistakes with that while defending.
Rico is liability as a defender
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Neither Stones nor Akanji have the attacking intelligence to come anywhere near Rico in the inverted role.

Too many aren't respecting his intelligence :p
 
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Alan Harper's Tash said:
Rico’s superpower is finding space between the lines. He’s absurdly good at that. Just look at the first goal today. He found the weakness in Wolves’ structure.

He’s 20. He’s trusted more at that age than any other academy graduate, including Foden.

He was overplayed last season due to injuries and that meant he played in games that he wouldn’t have as the physical mismatch was too great, which affected his morale and he was probably knackered too.

I know you don’t rate him and that’s fine, but I think his intelligence, movement and quick passing will make him a top notch number 8 in a few years.

Until then, he’s a utility player who we use as an inverted full back and occasional 8. He’s club trained, doesn’t make a fuss about game time and loves the club.
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Looks like the man is beginning to swnse his worth. All this Forrest talk has me worried :(
 
clarion said:
That’s not correct. He was so bad last season we ended playing Nunes there. I am not referring to his abilities 100%.
It is also the way Pep plays him. Meaningless short passes and slow comeback are costing us goals from transition. We don’t need it anymore.
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He really wasn’t, it’s just that some fans pinned the blame on having no fit centre half’s or centre mids on Rico.
 
handsofstone said:
Except hes a centre back and not a right back.....

what is this fanbase obsession with Khusanov at RB? Is it because hes fast? He's not a RB

If he was gonna be our long term RB he'd have played at RB already
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Yes! Its because he is fast. Kyle was fast. And Khusa is fast. So Khusa should be new Kyle. :) Top reasoning, no?
 
chesterbells said:
If I had a pound for every time someone mentions his age on here. It’s like Bellingham
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If I had a pound for every time some idiot regurgitated that bullshit line.

A young player's age is a valid talking point when discussing their potential and how they can improve. It's been a thing since the start of football discourse.

But obviously there's an absolutely hysterical running joke that definitely has not been run into the ground about Jude Bellingham so now nobody is supposed to mention young players being young anymore, apparently.
 
DD93 said:
Last season when Walker was loaned out, Pep had Akanji, Rico and Khusanov for that role.

Mainly it was Rico, because we had too many injured CBs and there was no luxury to play Akanji or even Khusanov on RB.

But in the end Pep had to play Matheus there and he played better than other options and cemented that place.

So we should judge by that experience and not use one game against weak Wolves team as an example.

Matheus helped us a lot to get into top four and therefore deserves to stay.
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I think you forget that at times Rico had to also play left back to cover injuries & that was the reason Nunes played RB & did well. A lad his age shouldn’t be playing every game, he needed to come out after playing through the really tough period.
 
Class ball for the goal. Him and Bobb linked up well last season before Bobbs injury and there were flashes today. Not sure I fancy him at full back against spurs though
 
Plalyed as A right back yesterday no as a utility plalyer and proved why he should be first choice there
 
Tugay One Cup said:
If I had a pound for every time some idiot regurgitated that bullshit line.

A young player's age is a valid talking point when discussing their potential and how they can improve. It's been a thing since the start of football discourse.

But obviously there's an absolutely hysterical running joke that definitely has not been run into the ground about Jude Bellingham so now nobody is supposed to mention young players being young anymore, apparently.
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He’s played over 50 times for the first team, so it’s not like he’s some inexperienced 20 year old though, who’s not had plenty of opportunities or who supporters haven’t seen plenty of or been able to form a view on. Thats the point. It’s also the point that some of the criticisms supporters make of him aren’t things that are gonna change with age. You’ll find the number of times I’ve (or anyone else) has referenced the Bellingham “joke” is infinitely less than the number of times his age has been mentioned. I think I’ve mentioned it approx twice. Go and have a look how often Rico’s age gets quoted. He’s 21 in November by the way.
 
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