82 | Rico Lewis - 2024/25

According to reports Rico was acting more like a captain than Walker after the game, whilst Grealish was laughing and joking in the Villa areas, and Kyle was first back in the dressing room and first on the coach. Apparently Rico spoke well after the game, and was honest along with Haaland.
 
Rico will be a top notch player, hopefully for us, in a year or two when he gets that physicality. He’s still growing into his body but has been thrust into the limelight because of the injury crisis.

As a club and as a fanbase we’re just going to have to see it play out without all the bullying and if we can be patient we’ll have a superb player on our hands.

Unfortunately, given the nature of the entertainment side of football, he’s becoming the object of the fans disaffection, and I hope he doesn’t have to leave to a club that will allow him to grow at the right pace.

Foden was a similar age when he came into the first team but Pep allowed him the space to grow as the team was in a much better place when he was coming through.
I've been saying all along many posters are treating this lad like the new Richard Edghill, ridiculous. Because he hasn't the skills of Foden, he gets the stick Foden never got, when he's been thrown in at the deep end. I hope this lad goes on to be a really decent player.
 
I've been saying all along many posters are treating this lad like the new Richard Edghill, ridiculous. Because he hasn't the skills of Foden, he gets the stick Foden never got, when he's been thrown in at the deep end. I hope this lad goes on to be a really decent player.
It’s not about not having the skills of Foden. He doesn’t have to be the next Foden. He has to be the next Walker/Cancelo or at the very least, the guy that can play 20 solid games a season, as backup to the next Walker/Cancelo. If he isn’t either…he is of no use to us.

For all the stick that Walker now receives, nobody doubts that he was one of the best RBs in the world. He has just fallen off a cliff as he has aged.

Cancelo got dogs abuse on here at times but he was a top-class RB, who also did a decent job at LB and was the successful guinea pig for the inverted full back. He made some mistakes (a few high profile), spat his dummy and that was the end. That being said, nobody will convince me that he was a worse defender than Rico. In possession, it was chalk and cheese, like comparing David Silva to Kalvin Philips.

This period was/is Ricos chance to show that he is our long-term RB and he is failing miserably. He is small, weak and slow. He cannot defend and he offers next-to-nothing going forward. In fact, he doesn’t appear to have any standout qualities, unless you consider keeping it simple a big plus. I referred to Cancelo being the inverted full back, can you imagine if Rico had been the guinea pig instead? I reckon that particular tactic would have lasted about 2 games before fans were calling for Pep to bin it.

All Rico has shown since coming into the 1st team, is that he can do the 20 games a season as back up…as long as we are at full strength elsewhere. However, in our current malaise, with key players missing, we are seeing Rico for what he really is…average across the board.

Players like Rico, who can “do a job”, hanging on the coattails of other much better players around him, are ten-a-penny. I’m not saying that he can’t have his uses as a squad player but I believe that those that think he is something special, are seriously viewing him through blue-tinted specs.

We need a new RB.
 
I've been saying all along many posters are treating this lad like the new Richard Edghill, ridiculous. Because he hasn't the skills of Foden, he gets the stick Foden never got, when he's been thrown in at the deep end. I hope this lad goes on to be a really decent player.
Edgehill was a seriously good player with pace and fire in the tank, much maligned we could have done with him now.

The unfair thing about Rico is that so many at the club have obviously blown that much smoke up his arse it's hard for him to live up to it considering his abilities.
 
It’s not about not having the skills of Foden. He doesn’t have to be the next Foden. He has to be the next Walker/Cancelo or at the very least, the guy that can play 20 solid games a season, as backup to the next Walker/Cancelo. If he isn’t either…he is of no use to us.

For all the stick that Walker now receives, nobody doubts that he was one of the best RBs in the world. He has just fallen off a cliff as he has aged.

Cancelo got dogs abuse on here at times but he was a top-class RB, who also did a decent job at LB and was the successful guinea pig for the inverted full back. He made some mistakes (a few high profile), spat his dummy and that was the end. That being said, nobody will convince me that he was a worse defender than Rico. In possession, it was chalk and cheese, like comparing David Silva to Kalvin Philips.

This period was/is Ricos chance to show that he is our long-term RB and he is failing miserably. He is small, weak and slow. He cannot defend and he offers next-to-nothing going forward. In fact, he doesn’t appear to have any standout qualities, unless you consider keeping it simple a big plus. I referred to Cancelo being the inverted full back, can you imagine if Rico had been the guinea pig instead? I reckon that particular tactic would have lasted about 2 games before fans were calling for Pep to bin it.

All Rico has shown since coming into the 1st team, is that he can do the 20 games a season as back up…as long as we are at full strength elsewhere. However, in our current malaise, with key players missing, we are seeing Rico for what he really is…average across the board.

Players like Rico, who can “do a job”, hanging on the coattails of other much better players around him, are ten-a-penny. I’m not saying that he can’t have his uses as a squad player but I believe that those that think he is something special, are seriously viewing him through blue-tinted specs.

We need a new RB.

Some home truths here but you've nailed it
 
I think he’ll end up being a top player and he’s shown that in plenty of games. He’s 20 years old so will inevitably have spells when he is out of form.

The criticsm on here at times has been ridiculous. It often feels like he gets criticised more than our senior players who have been shocking.

To some on here If your not ready made world class, you’re not good enough. It was the same with Palmer and other young players. We need to be patient with him.
 
I find the vitriol levelled at Rico shameful and frankly pathetic. I was at Villa today with a load of mainly younger blues behind me who hammered him from minute one. He is a young player who we have played in a different position every week, often like today two or three positions in the same game. He never hides, he seeks to get on the ball and there are far bigger high profile, big name, problems in our team, than Rico, but no, let’s scapegoat the academy graduate who is an easy target.
Ironic that Pep won’t play any academy kids “in order to protect them”, yet exposes this lad to failure and derision week after week.

Meanwhile one of our reject kids ran the match at Villa.
 
It’s not about not having the skills of Foden. He doesn’t have to be the next Foden. He has to be the next Walker/Cancelo or at the very least, the guy that can play 20 solid games a season, as backup to the next Walker/Cancelo. If he isn’t either…he is of no use to us.

For all the stick that Walker now receives, nobody doubts that he was one of the best RBs in the world. He has just fallen off a cliff as he has aged.

Cancelo got dogs abuse on here at times but he was a top-class RB, who also did a decent job at LB and was the successful guinea pig for the inverted full back. He made some mistakes (a few high profile), spat his dummy and that was the end. That being said, nobody will convince me that he was a worse defender than Rico. In possession, it was chalk and cheese, like comparing David Silva to Kalvin Philips.

This period was/is Ricos chance to show that he is our long-term RB and he is failing miserably. He is small, weak and slow. He cannot defend and he offers next-to-nothing going forward. In fact, he doesn’t appear to have any standout qualities, unless you consider keeping it simple a big plus. I referred to Cancelo being the inverted full back, can you imagine if Rico had been the guinea pig instead? I reckon that particular tactic would have lasted about 2 games before fans were calling for Pep to bin it.

All Rico has shown since coming into the 1st team, is that he can do the 20 games a season as back up…as long as we are at full strength elsewhere. However, in our current malaise, with key players missing, we are seeing Rico for what he really is…average across the board.

Players like Rico, who can “do a job”, hanging on the coattails of other much better players around him, are ten-a-penny. I’m not saying that he can’t have his uses as a squad player but I believe that those that think he is something special, are seriously viewing him through blue-tinted specs.

We need a new RB.
He's 20 years of age as I understand it. He's still learning the game at Premiership level. He's had to play in different positions in his very young career by a World Class manager. But yes, we do need a RB, we also need a LB too.
 

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