82 | Rico Lewis - 2024/25

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urban genie said:
The hyperbole here is staggering

He was sold short at the worst moment with an horrendous pass by Kovacic, and then couldn't keep up.

This his whole 45 minutws was shit bollocks is jist nasty boo boy bollocks.

He isn't able to play wing back, and shouldn't be employed as one or an inverted fullback again, but we lost that game with the second, didn't mattter where it came from the 3rd was inevitable
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but this isn’t an isolated case it’s been all season, he shouldn’t be employed anywhere in that team. It’s more on pep though for putting him in such a high pressured game against one of best front 3 in europe. unfortunately anyone who thinks he’s premier league level is daft and most certainly not champions league level. Feel sorry for him but at the same time he’s an adult on life changing salary playing for one of the best teams in the world. Heavy critique is necessary.
 
robbieh said:
Ancelotti always seems to make impactful subs. He has certainly got Pep's number.
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I mean he hasn't. Real Madrid are stacked with talent and whilst they've got injuries defensively they've got quite a lot of options offensively. Last night we lost Akanji and Grealish to injury. We had Ake returning and unable to play the 90. We had Stones suffering quite clearly by the end of the game due to a lack of match fitness. We had Doku on the bench returning from injury, we had a lot of youngsters as well. Rico was thrown in and did the best he could. He defended well overall. Got stuck into Vinicius, Foden did well backing him up and ultimately a shit pass to him that caught him in two minds is the only reason people are criticising him. In hindsight he should have come and just cleared ball, man and everything else. But he didn't. But Kovacic who has been part of a number of successful teams should know better than to play a very difficult ball to his defence when 2-2 with seconds left.
 
Scottyboi said:
He's a tidy player and it doesn't matter if you do well against Vini for 40 minutes, you clear that ball or take the **** out simple as that. Kovacic was just as bad for the pass.
Feel bad for him, but he shouldn't be anywhere near right back, just shows how bad our transfers have been.
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Yup, it's not Lewis's fault someone at the club blew smoke up his arse for a couple of years making him believe he can play at this level.

That's on the people blowing the smoke not him.
 
Johnny Mars Bar said:
Probably not, but that cuts to my whole point.

We shouldn't have to. Look at Foden's trajectory into the first team, he was introduced slowly over a number of seasons and never once 'thrown to the wolves', which is exactly what has happened to Rico Lewis repeatedly this season.

Everyone was singing his praises last season, and that was because he was being introduced gradually with the support of senior players to show him the ropes and offer him protection. At this point in his career he's full of potential but not experience.

Now those senior players have fallen off a cliff, are constantly injured and/or checked out, so there nobody there to help ease him in.

Lewis has only just turned 20 and we're chucking him on and expecting him to do the job of a 30 year old elite player.

This isn't a failure of one of our most exciting youth prospects - it's a failure of senior recruitment and management.

I don't know what you do for a living but imagine at 20 your bosses at work all fuck off and leave you in charge. How do you think that would've gone?
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exactly correct. No point in blaming Rico. He isn't a fullback, he may one day be a very good utility midfielder. What happened last evening was inevitable against one of the best attacking teams on the planet. That isn't on Rico and god knows what it will have done to his already fragile confidence. That's on Pep.
We are regularly being beaten in the final quarter but we keep using the same substitutes and then are surprised when we get exactly the same outcome. That's on management too.

We all love Pep and everything he has done for us but there is no avoiding the fact that better planning and squad building could have mitigated some of this drop in standards. He has admitted he thought he could go again with the same small squad and he has been unlucky to be hit by so many injuries but lets face it these things do happen to football teams and he should have been overruled.

Even fully fit, compare the quality of this squad and the age profile with those that won two, three and four years ago. It tells its own story.
 
youngbob said:
Not a defender. That much was clear about 12 months ago.

Could really do with growing a couple more inches and filling out a bit - look at what it did for Foden - but that's about all. It'll come, I think Pep just needs to give up on the idea that he's a defender. If we had more options at the back currently he wouldn't be played there.

He'll be a good squad player for us going forward but as a box-to-box/eight type. Very good with the ball in tight areas, magnificent when it comes to finding space in the midfield, definitely has an eye for goal when he does get in dangerous spots.
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Still stand by this from months ago. He's not a defender - his skillset is better further forward. Would like to see him used up the pitch as a foil to a more creative dynamic player next to him. Not in the first XI, but definitely as part of a better squad. Needs to bulk out a little bit, and if he could grow another inch that would make a world of difference. For reference, this is what Foden looked like at the same age as Rico.

1739361172515.png

He was a scrawny little thing who needed grow an extra inch and bulk out. And Rico will in time. Foden is 171cm tall and Rico is 169cm tall - that extra two cm could make all the difference with him. I'm okay with giving Rico another season but Pep needs to start playing him as an extra body behind the striker, rather than as a right-back when we have no other defensive options available.
 
youngbob said:
Still stand by this from months ago. He's not a defender - his skillset is better further forward. Would like to see him used up the pitch as a foil to a more creative dynamic player next to him. Not in the first XI, but definitely as part of a better squad. Needs to bulk out a little bit, and if he could grow another inch that would make a world of difference. For reference, this is what Foden looked like at the same age as Rico.

View attachment 146489

He was a scrawny little thing who needed grow an extra inch and bulk out. And Rico will in time. Foden is 171cm tall and Rico is 169cm tall - that extra two cm could make all the difference with him. I'm okay with giving Rico another season but Pep needs to start playing him as an extra body behind the striker, rather than as a right-back when we have no other defensive options available.
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Foden genuinely looked twice the player Lewis did at 20 years old, someone at the club has pushed Lewis through and Lewis is now caught in the spotlight.
 
youngbob said:
Still stand by this from months ago. He's not a defender - his skillset is better further forward. Would like to see him used up the pitch as a foil to a more creative dynamic player next to him. Not in the first XI, but definitely as part of a better squad. Needs to bulk out a little bit, and if he could grow another inch that would make a world of difference. For reference, this is what Foden looked like at the same age as Rico.

View attachment 146489

He was a scrawny little thing who needed grow an extra inch and bulk out. And Rico will in time. Foden is 171cm tall and Rico is 169cm tall - that extra two cm could make all the difference with him. I'm okay with giving Rico another season but Pep needs to start playing him as an extra body behind the striker, rather than as a right-back when we have no other defensive options available.
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Comparing the lad to Foden is really not doing him any favours. What do you want him as an uncreative 8 or a 6 who lacks the physicality for the role? Cash in whilst we still can.
 
Would he play for rock bottom side Southampton over Kyle walker peters if he was there? No he wouldn’t.

So why is he playing for city? Hes a bottom end championship level player. Weak, easy to bully, slow, offers nothing defensively or attacking wise, what are his strengths?

Someone please tell me one strength of his game and how that equates to him being good enough for city?
 
urban genie said:
The hyperbole here is staggering

He was sold short at the worst moment with an horrendous pass by Kovacic, and then couldn't keep up.

This his whole 45 minutws was shit bollocks is jist nasty boo boy bollocks.

He isn't able to play wing back, and shouldn't be employed as one or an inverted fullback again, but we lost that game with the second, didn't mattter where it came from the 3rd was inevitable
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He has taken over from Richard Edghill, the local kid who came not only into the City side but his National side, yet his own fans call him shit, some of our fan base are an utter disgrace at times.
 
There's time yet but he needs to switch on and learn or he will not make it here. Not totally at fault for that 3rd goal last night btw.
 
K-Bo said:
everyone in world football can shove him off the ball and there's absolutely no solution to that. Would sell in the summer, it's sad that we've sold so much top academy talent but kept one of the middling ones.
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That's how I feel sadly. Way you weak on the ball due to his stature, not quick enough and often caught ball watching. There were groàns arround us when he came on last night.
 
K-Bo said:
everyone in world football can shove him off the ball and there's absolutely no solution to that. Would sell in the summer, it's sad that we've sold so much top academy talent but kept one of the middling ones.
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Massively agree. I don't want to be hard on him as he seems a great lad, is City through and through and came through our academy. But the long and the short short it is that he can't defend. But he's also not creative enough to be played higher up the pitch. I'm not really sure what his level is because I think he'd probably be too deemed too lightweight for a midtable club too. His movement is good and I think he has a decent footballing brain, but the physical attributes aren't really there.
 
Is he any better than Gomez was in truth? He looked a good footballer but wasn’t athletic enough or physical enough. Rico gives his all that’s clear but as a guy said as I was leaving the ground last night he was like a child out there playing against men.
 
Look at Bellingham shot hahah

They passed the ball from like 50 meters away , from theris own half curving it to left, in one moment Lewis was two steps in front Jude, very next second Jude was in front of Ederson hahah
 
Gigant said:
Look at Bellingham shot hahah

They passed the ball from like 50 meters away , from theris own half curving it to left, in one moment Lewis was two steps in front Jude, very next second Jude was in front of Ederson hahah
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I think he expected Ederson to cut out the cross field ball on that one. I know I did. He shouldn't have stopped though.
 
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