I don't expect him to have a rise like Mainoo but he's another possible midfield option in this u21 cycle, especially if Wharton is with the seniors from now on.
He’s got a great engine but outside of that he’s not similar to Cleverley. He’s lost a year and a half of football due to injury and Brighton refusing to play him when he wouldn’t sign a new contract with them, so he’s effectively playing catch up. Rodri should be his role model, as that’s the style of player he is. If you were designing a DM from scratch he’d be it in terms of attributes, but he’s got a lot to improve on to make it at a top 6 team. Hopefully he can push on from injury and Brightons poor behaviour.
Man City wonderkid Rico Lewis reveals the new position he wants to establish himself in for club and country… and why he thinks Lee Carsley is the ideal man for the England job https://t.co/EP9PBGFRL5— Mail Sport (@MailSport) July 22, 2024
Rico Lewis is someone whose ceiling is quite hard to determine imo. I almost disregard him a bit because I feel like he's not particularly standout in any role despite being able to perform multiple roles to a good level. He's very intelligent (particularly off the ball) but I feel like his physical profile is going to hold him back a bit. I don't know if he's as good technically as the elite players who have similar builds/levels of athleticism to him.
Smart move by Rico there, bulling up the potential next England manager. Considering the inverted role he generally plays as a full back, and the number of times he's played further forward for City, his future was always going to be in midfield. It's just a case of finding a manager (like Carsley) who's not afraid to put his faith in smaller, ball playing technicians like Lewis, Harvey Elliott or Angel Gomes.
The amount of young midfield options we have at the minute is like nothing I've ever seen. The new manager needs to treat the midfield like a clean slate. If that means big names get dropped then so be it.
Absolutely. Give me a manager with the balls to drop a Declan Rice or a Jude Bellingham if it helps to improve our shape, balance and fluidity. The best players DON'T always make the best team.
Unfortunately I suspect such manager is not coming - the likes of Potter and Carsley will be major targets of the press and many fans because of various things (Some of the press seem to think Potter is quite weak and could crack) which means any controversial decisions will be hard for them get respect for. A lot of the press is run now for clicks and those want Klopp or Pep as manager. The biased club supporters social media accounts also seem to fuel the media quite a bit now a days - Mark Goldbridge working for Talksport a big example. .
So you're trying to tell us that the FA will make their selection based on whoever gets the most 'clicks' on newspaper websites? Let's remember, you were convinced that Gareth Southgate chose his England squad using the same method, before he admitted ahead of the Euros that he gave social media the widest berth possible.
I meant more how much leeway a manager will be given with the press and fans to make the changes. Interest and optimism was low in 2016/2017 so Southgate was able to do his first rebuild relatively painless and his biggest calls on Rooney and Hart were pretty popular. But this time arround it won’t be as interest is higher and therefore more attention to the more controversial picks which a manager whose appointment wasn’t particularly popular could find more difficult. Basically a manger like Klopp or Pep dropping Rice or Bellingham would be seen in a different light then if Carsley or Potter did it.
Just because it might go down badly it doesn't mean someone like Carsley won't do it. Just because he's not a big name it doesn't mean he's going to be weak and will base his entire selection process on who's the most popular and will appease the highest number of people. Southgate made tonnes and tonnes of unpopular decisions and mostly stuck by them. You pretty much can't do right when making selections as England manager anyway, whoever gets the job will be criticised whatever they decide to do.
He won’t but bold decisions will have to pay off pretty quickly in a way non tournament decisions haven’t been that important for a while. Expectations are super high now that all that needs to happen is a good manager and tournament wins will come instantly.
🚨🔵 Alfie Gilchrist has received two loan proposals from Preston and Sheffield United.He’s leaving Chelsea on loan, not travelling to US pre season tour as he will decide fav destination in the next days. pic.twitter.com/4ehUAAX8n9— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) July 22, 2024
🚨🔵 Pep Guardiola: “I’d love to have James McAtee and to keep him next season”.“He’s special guy to play in small spaces, in the pockets, we don’t have many”.“I’ve a high, high opinion of McAtee and I also know his huge potential”. pic.twitter.com/PnoGmPvWXj— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) July 22, 2024 Our U21 #YoungLions will take on Austria at Kenilworth Stadium in September. 🎟️🔗 https://t.co/e5Cx6jtcX5 pic.twitter.com/J2uUsCey6A— England (@England) July 23, 2024
Looks like City are going to keep James McAtee this season. Hope I'm wrong but feel like he'll just end up like Reiss Nelson and Smith-Rowe did at Arsenal this season. Think he really needs to be playing every week at this stage.
By the way Pep Guardiola was talking it sounds like someone wants him to leave through - but if that’s City’s owners or McAtee himself I’m not sure. Lots of I would love to have him rather than we have decided to keep him this season.
I don't know if I'd read that deeply into it, I think Pep is probably just acknowledging it's not a given he stays. If someone offers £20-30m for him it's quite obvious City would, and they should, accept that.
I think the transfer strategy of City is to basically always say that they want to keep a player, to keep the perceived value high.
With Olympic football starting tonight it really reminds me of how unfortunate it is that we don't compete in this. Think we'd have had a really good chance of winning gold with Carsley in charge. It also got me thinking about our squad if we were competing as an independent country. Trying to avoid picking players who played a lot of minutes at a high level last season, I think this is what I'd go for: Carl Rushworth James Trafford Rico Lewis Quansah Chalobah* Wood Archie Brown Harrison Burrows Hinshelwood Curtis Jones Harvey Elliott Chukwuemeka McAtee Madueke Solanke* Archer Hudson-Odoi* Bynoe-Gittens 18 players, minimum two keepers and 15 of the 18 have to be born on or after 01/01/2001 if anyone else fancies a crack for fun.
I guess it is unfortunate, but the number of pull outs and club withdrawals/refusals would be enormous, I don't think you'd ever get the squad you wanted.