82 | Rico Lewis - 2024/25

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DATOIA said:
10x better.. huh

We won 2-3 pl titles (especially 18/19) when Zinchenko played that inverted fullback role and was sold to arsenal for 35m

How much will anyone pay for Rico ?
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If we put Rico on the market he’d get more than £35m.

How has life at Arsenal gone for Zinchenko? Oh yeah he’s not a starter and everyone has realised he’s shit.
 
Maly said:
Not many will ever reach Lahm’s standards, but that doesn’t mean Rico can’t be a top class City & England player

He’s a baby & none of us know how good he’ll eventually turn out, but I’d wager that he’ll have a long & successful career, hopefully with us
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initially I wrote a bit more, but let me sum it up: lahm is one of the most decorated players in recent history and the comparison is frankly off the mark and not fair.

as for rico, I just havent seen significant progress. like most people, I was excited at first but he seems to lack the key attributes required for almost any position on the pitch. in todays game, especially at our level, you need specialists and he does not fit that mold.

of course I hope I am wrong and he goes on to have a fantastic career with us but right now, I just don’t see it.
 
merz said:
initially I wrote a bit more, but let me sum it up: lahm is one of the most decorated players in recent history and the comparison is frankly off the mark and not fair.

as for rico, I just havent seen significant progress. like most people, I was excited at first but he seems to lack the key attributes required for almost any position on the pitch. in todays game, especially at our level, you need specialists and he does not fit that mold.

of course I hope I am wrong and he goes on to have a fantastic career with us but right now, I just don’t see it.
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I don't think you're wrong, too much was expected of him but if we ever needed a player that can pass back or sideways or fall over in a strong wind he'll hit the big time.
 
merz said:
initially I wrote a bit more, but let me sum it up: lahm is one of the most decorated players in recent history and the comparison is frankly off the mark and not fair.

as for rico, I just havent seen significant progress. like most people, I was excited at first but he seems to lack the key attributes required for almost any position on the pitch. in todays game, especially at our level, you need specialists and he does not fit that mold.

of course I hope I am wrong and he goes on to have a fantastic career with us but right now, I just don’t see it.
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Completely agree that the Lahm comparisons aren’t particularly helpful, but I’ve got no idea what key attributes you think he lacks?

As for specific roles for players…..I don’t buy that, neither does Pep playing Bernardo playing anywhere in midfield, or Phil in midfield or attack, or Ake, Stones & Gvardiol at CB or FB

I hope you’re wrong too :)
 
callumcity said:
He only turned 20 a couple weeks ago. Idiots on here writing him off as not good enough. He’s 10x better than Zinchenko was at fullback.

He’s quite clearly got a lot of talent, he just needs time to mature.

All this experience he’s getting is amazing. He’s bound to be a very good player for us. He’s only playing so much out of necessity at the moment. We have nobody else.
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Disagree. Zinchenko for all of his faults definitely played the position much better, not caught out defensively as much and most importantly really progressive passing.
 
His market value is 37M Euros, which is around 30M in British currency.

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callumcity said:
He only turned 20 a couple weeks ago. Idiots on here writing him off as not good enough. He’s 10x better than Zinchenko was at fullback.

He’s quite clearly got a lot of talent, he just needs time to mature.

All this experience he’s getting is amazing. He’s bound to be a very good player for us. He’s only playing so much out of necessity at the moment. We have nobody else.
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Couldn't be more wrong if you tried. Lewis is a horrible defender, his positioning is shocking, his defending is poor too. He is tidy on the ball and I don't mind him as a squad player. Zinny was miles better though and contributed more. Villa at home his entrance was a massive factor on us winning the league, also remember PSG away, he came on when we was losing and we won that game, with him then being picked for the CL games from then onwards.
 
Maly said:
Completely agree that the Lahm comparisons aren’t particularly helpful, but I’ve got no idea what key attributes you think he lacks?

As for specific roles for players…..I don’t buy that, neither does Pep playing Bernardo playing anywhere in midfield, or Phil in midfield or attack, or Ake, Stones & Gvardiol at CB or FB

I hope you’re wrong too :)
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I want to avoid this turning into outright criticism, so I’ll only highlight a few points:

as a full-back: lacks pace, tackling ability, positioning, strength, dribbling, aerial ability
as a midfielder: weak first touch, positioning, passing range, dribbling, strength, aerial duels, struggles under pressure

the players you listed are all established internationals with many considered world class. of course they can play different positions but to get the most out of them, you would probably not shuffle them as much as pep does.
this might be an even bigger topic though.
 
merz said:
I want to avoid this turning into outright criticism, so I’ll only highlight a few points:

as a full-back: lacks pace, tackling ability, positioning, strength, dribbling, aerial ability
as a midfielder: weak first touch, positioning, passing range, dribbling, strength, aerial duels, struggles under pressure

the players you listed are all established internationals with many considered world class. of course they can play different positions but to get the most out of them, you would probably not shuffle them as much as pep does.
this might be an even bigger topic though.
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Other than these attributes, he also lacks work rate. It was 87th or 88th minute against Forrest, we lost the ball (I don't remember if he lost it or not in this particular case), and they started running at us with a fast counter attack. He was literally just jogging back despite the fact he was less than 10mins on the pitch at that point. It happens to him a lot. This and constantly pointing fingers at others. For me, this indicates a lack of the winning mentality. Speaking of which, we took him out of the side, out of our midfield or defence, and we won convincingly. Don't get me wrong, he will have a career elsewhere, just not at this highest level. With us, he is useful when we are 3-0 up, cruising, and we need to keep the ball (he is great technically), pass it around etc. Otherwise, he will never be good enough to be a starter for any of the top teams. I wish him all the best, though.
 
merz said:
as a full-back: lacks pace, tackling ability, positioning, strength, dribbling, aerial ability
as a midfielder: weak first touch, positioning, passing range, dribbling, strength, aerial duels, struggles under pressure
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Yep..

I am not saying that City should throw him away, because if we have our main players in form (especially Rodri) and everything is ticking around, then you have a luxury to play Rico in that inverted fullback position and rotate someone like Walker or another one who comes to replace Walker this summer..

But Rico hasn't shown anything or any talent or any glimpse of brilliance to make an assumption that he will ever become a player, on any position, to be worthy to start for a team who fights for titles and wants to be n1 in England and in Europe.

And the reason is above mentioned description of Rico's weaknesses, user "merz" perfectly outputted for us and I don't think anyone who understands football can say that it's not true.

First touch is something that can't be improved or taught. We had a lot of examples in Sterling and Sane and other ones. Pace and physical abilities also, he isn't cut to play at high level in terms of defence.

And Pep should stop these stupid experiments if he wants to win games. Right now we are in the difficult situation, we don't have Rodri, everything isn't ticking like it used to and thus there is no luxury to play with -1 men and spend time on Rico's development. He isn't Messi or Foden or someone with the big / world-class future to sacrifice time and energy and I don't remember Pep investing that much time in Foden either. Until Phil started to play at a very high level, he wasn't getting the minutes Rico is getting right now and he is n1 in terms of minutes in our team this season.

McAtee for example, he had decent spells and was playing regularly for a PL team last season. Scored some wonderful goals and etc. but he isn't getting anything closer to Rico. Why aren't we giving a chance to McAtee, especially in midfield area, where in terms of skills, he has everything better than Rico and what's more important, there was a team in PL last season, who thought that McAtee was worth to play in their starting line up.

How many teams in PL would play him as a starter ? I don't think there is a team in PL or even in championship who would guarantee Rico that.
 
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Funny old game isn't it.

I think he's absolute quality, and will have a long and successful career, even if he's had a bit of a tough time lately in a struggling team.

Guy above reckons he wouldn't get a game in the Championship.

I hope I'm right.
 
Rico would start for Championship teams at RB.

He would start for Saints and Brentford in the Prem at RB because they are lacking in those areas.

No team would play him in the midfield. That is only a luxury afforded in the best control team in football and it hasn't really come to anything positive.
 
Haaland94 said:
Other than these attributes, he also lacks work rate. It was 87th or 88th minute against Forrest, we lost the ball (I don't remember if he lost it or not in this particular case), and they started running at us with a fast counter attack. He was literally just jogging back despite the fact he was less than 10mins on the pitch at that point. It happens to him a lot. This and constantly pointing fingers at others. For me, this indicates a lack of the winning mentality. Speaking of which, we took him out of the side, out of our midfield or defence, and we won convincingly. Don't get me wrong, he will have a career elsewhere, just not at this highest level. With us, he is useful when we are 3-0 up, cruising, and we need to keep the ball (he is great technically), pass it around etc. Otherwise, he will never be good enough to be a starter for any of the top teams. I wish him all the best, though.
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You haven’t got a clue mate, this will come back to haunt you
 
callumcity said:
You haven’t got a clue mate, this will come back to haunt you
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There are a lot of posters that agree with me, though. Maybe I am clueless, but saying that still doesn't debunk anything that was said about him, though. @merz listed it quite well, and many others as well.

Once again, a good player, but not a City-level player. There is no shame in that. If I, and many others, are wrong on this, then I would be the first one to celebrate because it would mean we have a Kyle Walker replacement. As it stands, I see a problem at RB that needs addressing, although I must say Kyle did better (first time in a long time) against Forrest since he was clearly asked to just stay back and simply defend, and do nothing else.
 
Haaland94 said:
Other than these attributes, he also lacks work rate. It was 87th or 88th minute against Forrest, we lost the ball (I don't remember if he lost it or not in this particular case), and they started running at us with a fast counter attack. He was literally just jogging back despite the fact he was less than 10mins on the pitch at that point. It happens to him a lot. This and constantly pointing fingers at others. For me, this indicates a lack of the winning mentality. Speaking of which, we took him out of the side, out of our midfield or defence, and we won convincingly. Don't get me wrong, he will have a career elsewhere, just not at this highest level. With us, he is useful when we are 3-0 up, cruising, and we need to keep the ball (he is great technically), pass it around etc. Otherwise, he will never be good enough to be a starter for any of the top teams. I wish him all the best, though.
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I probably disagree here. Mainly because if Pep thought he was lazy and wasn't tracking back, he wouldn't play him.

I don't quite recall the situation, so I might be speaking nonsense, but is there a chance that he's picking up the positions he should, and trusting that those further back do their jobs and then get the ball to him?
 
sarcastico said:
Rico would start for Championship teams at RB.

He would start for Saints and Brentford in the Prem at RB because they are lacking in those areas.

No team would play him in the midfield. That is only a luxury afforded in the best control team in football and it hasn't really come to anything positive.
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Not that I watch them all the time, I don't, so I might be wrong, but Aaron Hickey and Kyle Walker-Peters (we were interested in them in the past as well) come to mind. I don't think Rico plays ahead of them at his current level.
 
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