82 | Rico Lewis - 2024/25

[sh249]

That position only works if you're dominating games, as soon as they attack the right hand side, he's a free pass. If you're Dani Akves or Marcelo, sure its worth that risk, but if your Lewis or Zinchenko, and all you offer is more control, no actual creativity, then that's a bad trade off.

Without Rodri, I just don't t see how you can risk him I'm defence

I agree that we need control, but I think we could have that with Lewis playing that role. Our football in 2017/18 and 2018/19 was sublime, and that was with Delph and Zinchenko doing that exact job alongside Fernandinho. Hardly world-beaters.

 

[ninjamonkey]

If he cannot play as a conventional right back he simply has to come out of the team, absolutely everybody is now exploiting the massive gaps he leaves.

Their second goal straight from kick off is a great visual representation to see the biggest problem we have and see how easy it is for the opposition to take advantage. Immediately from kick off Rico just ignores his defensive duties and pretty much runs upfront, he forces kovacic to come over, he gets done with ease and suddenly they're right at our now back 3 and it's then turned into 5v3 straight from kick off. Nobody in midfield has the legs to get back in and Rico is nowhere to be seen.

Pep's absolutely to blame more than anything for asking him to do this but Rico himself is far from blameless. We talk about his game intelligence a lot but hes clueless defensively. he has to learn some defensive nous, it was his decision to break from the backline instead of staying in line.

We need a back 4 not a back 3

 

[ID70]

Doesn’t have the athleticism to play the role he’s undertaking.

 

[Thaksinssoldier]

Nowhere near it.

We’ve allowed far better players to leave.

 

[MCFCFanTX]

At this point in his career, he's a specialist player. Effective against some teams but limited against others. He's still developing.

 

[Millwallawayveteran1988]

He is never a defensive player. He is too slow. He does some good things going forward but he shouldn’t be anywhere near our back line.

 

[OrigamiNinja]

Nowhere near it.

We’ve allowed far better players to leave.

Get this out the way 1st…We all know that Cancelo is a cock. However, I can’t help but watch Rico and just see a Poundland Cancelo. He’s no better defensively and significantly worse than him in the opposition half.

Cancelo was dropped for some high-profile mistakes (notably at Anfield) and then spat his dummy. Now i am watching Rico make similar mistakes and other than Rico being a nice kid, I’m not seeing how the team has come out of it for the better?

 

[Worsleyweb]

Kept him and sold palmer! Huge mistake

 

[itisrising]

Just far too ineffective in the final third to warrant playing there so often.

 

[Beanhead]

Pep clearly loves him.. whilst I am far from convinced. Pep knows about a million times what I know about football so I’ll leave it to his good judgement, but for me his lack of strength and athleticism is apparent and every time the ball falls to him in the business end of the field it breaks down, so I’m struggling to see what Pep is seeing.

Bet I look like a right mug in 18 months time and hope that I do!