82 | Rico Lewis - 2025/26

[Silvatoure21]

Rico seems to only be effective coming off the bench for 10-20. Starting him seems like a big problem

 

[Ban-jani]

That's cool. He's not going anywhere any time soon, 5 years on his contract and the manager loves him.

I bet you said Rodri was shit and would never be good enough too once upon a time, and that was just your honest assessment too. Like I said in a comment above, the forum as a whole has proven one thing over the last 5 years, and that's we've got very little ability to assess football players, so I don't pay attention.

But when people start writing things they know to be completely false about a player, I think it's interesting to ask why.

You seem very angry about it and you’ve absolutely no idea what I said about Rodri when he signed. The difference is though, three years on from him coming into the squad, he was putting in world class performances. Rico Lewis is no better and is arguably worse than he was in 22/23 when he first came in.

It’s been three years and he’s only starting matches because of injuries, he hadn’t started a premier league since August before Utd. So a bit of a daft example to be honest mate.

Is there any point when fans are allowed to state someone isn’t good enough, in your opinion? Do you think he’s put a run of games together where you genuinely thought he was good enough and if so, when?

 

[domalino]

I’ve read all the posts.
Lewis has won trophies by not playing a pivotal role, when he is needed to be a defender he can’t defend, whenever he is needed to get back he runs in treacle, whenever he needs to retain the ball he loses it, he gets brushed of the ball to easy, and runs into cul-de-sacs constantly, and he is constantly out of position so other players have to cover for him.
If you don’t accept/care what others on here say that’s fine, but there must be a reason that every team we play targets him to great effect.
I know he’s a smashing lad but he just isn’t good enough.

Perhaps try reading them again because nothing you just wrote has any relevance to what I’ve posted.

 

[domalino]

You seem very angry about it and you’ve absolutely no idea what I said about Rodri when he signed. The difference is though, three years on from him coming into the squad, he was putting in world class performances. Rico Lewis is no better and is arguably worse than he was in 22/23 when he first came in.

It’s been three years and he’s only starting matches because of injuries, he hadn’t started a premier league since August before Utd. So a bit of a daft example to be honest mate.

Is there any point when fans are allowed to state someone isn’t good enough, in your opinion? Do you think he’s put a run of games together where you genuinely thought he was good enough and if so, when?

Again as I’ve already said, I’m not interested in debating if Rico is this or that, what I pointed out is that people are now writing objectively false statements to justify hating him, which seems like an odd thing to do.

 

[snorky]

Bless him, and all that.
But he is a tad wank imo

 

[Rhapsody in Blue]

With respect, this is utter nonsense.
We won titles with Zin and Milner.
Rico is as good as either and far better than others we have had in title winning squads.
This pile-on is as distasteful as it is predictable.
Not so long ago, Nunes was in the same bucket of yours I seem to remember.

We won titles thanks to Zin - forgotten Villa?

How Milner can even be compared to Lewis is beyond me. One has been a hugely important player for his teams for 20+ years

 

[bondsman]

I could obviously write back about how Rico played a bigger role in winning those trophies than Phillips could dream of, but I don't need to, because what I replied to was that you can't win titles with Rico Lewis in the squad.

And you can, because we have. End of. To say otherwise is simply false.

You can win trophies with poor players of course if the rest are mint. Doesn’t stop Rico being poor. Look at some of the dross in uniteds squads who have big trophy hauls. Individually Lewis is poor

 

[domalino]

You can win trophies with poor players of course if the rest are mint. Doesn’t stop Rico being poor. Look at some of the dross in uniteds squads who have big trophy hauls. Individually Lewis is poor

And if you asked anyone in our title winning squads or United’s if they could have won the things they did without hardworking dedicated squad players who weren’t starting quality but happily did whatever the team needed them to do, they’d all say no.

 

[HypnoticBlue]

Perhaps try reading them again because nothing you just wrote has any relevance to what I’ve posted.

I give in, the thread is about Rico Lewis, and that’s who we are discussing.

 

[decmancity]

He has made it this far because he has football intelligence, as hard as that might be to believe now but the game is moving on and he just can't go with it.

I think Nico O'Reilly is intelligent also but him being a complete physical specimen is what is propelling him now. If we could translate Rico's brain into someone 6ft he would be a POTY contender.

 

[oldius]

We won titles thanks to Zin - forgotten Villa?

How Milner can even be compared to Lewis is beyond me. One has been a hugely important player for his teams for 20+ years

And one may become that.
You are making the mistake of comparing Milner at the end of his career, with all that entails, with a player at the beginning of his.

With Zin you presuppose that Rico will never score important goals, which is nonsense.

 

[simon23]

hopefully one of the teams coming up will take a punt on him in the summer

 

[bondsman]

And if you asked anyone in our title winning squads or United’s if they could have won the things they did without hardworking dedicated squad players who weren’t starting quality but happily did whatever the team needed them to do, they’d all say no.

You’re ignoring the part about Lewis being poor. No one is questioning the need for hardworking squad players. People are arguing he’s not good enough. His lack of ability is certainly more exposed now we have a weaker squad no doubt. Now when called upon it’s far more obvious how weak he is. He’s another player with no position/role that’s because he’s not very good.

 

[Ban-jani]

He has made it this far because he has football intelligence, as hard as that might be to believe now but the game is moving on and he just can't go with it.

I think Nico O'Reilly is intelligent also but him being a complete physical specimen is what is propelling him now. If we could translate Rico's brain into someone 6ft he would be a POTY contender.

His defending at the back post on Saturday was anything but intelligent.

 

[supercity88]

He has made it this far because he has football intelligence, as hard as that might be to believe now but the game is moving on and he just can't go with it.

I think Nico O'Reilly is intelligent also but him being a complete physical specimen is what is propelling him now. If we could translate Rico's brain into someone 6ft he would be a POTY contender.

I don't believe this rhetoric around the game moving on. The peak City sides we saw under Pep would win the league without a problem. We would keep the ball so effectively the opposition wouldn't get a sniff, and we would find a way to break them down through crisp, quick passing.

The issue with the current version is that we can keep the ball without creating chances or can play higher risk football which leads to a more chaotic game that almost always suits our opponents more than us.

 

[Craig]

I don't believe this rhetoric around the game moving on. The peak City sides we saw under Pep would win the league without a problem. We would keep the ball so effectively the opposition wouldn't get a sniff, and we would find a way to break them down through crisp, quick passing.

The issue with the current version is that we can keep the ball without creating chances or can play higher risk football which leads to a more chaotic game that almost always suits our opponents more than us.

Yeah, agreed if you had the players you’d absolutely piss this league playing the way we used to. Problem is at the moment the overall standard of top players across Europe is well down on what it was 10 years ago or so.

 

[decmancity]

His defending at the back post on Saturday was anything but intelligent.

He was pushed out of the way, bullied. He was hardly stood 30yrds up field and didnt have a clue about it.

 

[Phil1]

There is absolutely no way he would be getting defended by the handful who still do so if he wasn't a local lad who came through the youth system.
Not a chance.

 

[Roachy]

He was pushed out of the way, bullied. He was hardly stood 30yrds up field and didnt have a clue about it.

It was terrible defending regardless. He had no awareness of anything going on around him.

 

[BlueMonkey79]

You seem very angry about it and you’ve absolutely no idea what I said about Rodri when he signed. The difference is though, three years on from him coming into the squad, he was putting in world class performances. Rico Lewis is no better and is arguably worse than he was in 22/23 when he first came in.

It’s been three years and he’s only starting matches because of injuries, he hadn’t started a premier league since August before Utd. So a bit of a daft example to be honest mate.

Is there any point when fans are allowed to state someone isn’t good enough, in your opinion? Do you think he’s put a run of games together where you genuinely thought he was good enough and if so, when?

Like Rico Lewis is ever gonna be up for a Balon D or

This forum makes me piss my sides at times mate.

Rico Lewis is Championship Level at best.

If he played for the rags we would be dining out on it royally.