Rico Lewis making the most of Joao Cancelo path to develop at Man City

23.02.2022 - 15:15 / manchestereveningnews.co.uk

Playing full-back has always been fun for Rico Lewis.

A position that used to be one of the most fashionable in the XI was already undergoing its popularity makeover when he joined the Manchester City academy at Under-9s level, with Dani Alves leading the charge to show how exciting the role can be on a global stage and, closer to home, Pablo Zabaleta taking over from Micah Richards bombing down the flank.

After drawing the best out of Alves at Barcelona and Philipp Lahm and David Alaba at Bayern Munich, Pep Guardiola has made the Etihad a go-to destination for world-class full-backs. Many scoffed at the £50m paid for Kyle Walker in 2017 but City were laughing at the end of the season when they had won the Premier League with 100 points, and Joao Cancelo has proven to be a perfect complement for Walker over the last two seasons.

With Trent Alexander-Arnold at Liverpool and Reece James and Ben Chilwell at Chelsea, the full-back position is enjoying a golden age that 17-year-old Lewis is happy to see. While the Blues youngster isn't out to copy and paste their traits into his game, being able to watch somebody like Cancelo on a daily basis can only help.

"It is really popular now. Especially at City, I like it because full-back is quite an important position," he told M.E.N Sport.

"You see it in the first team that Cancelo is pretty influential in that position. Maybe I wouldn't enjoy it as much in another club but definitely at City I like it a lot because there is more involvement in the team.

"I mainly focus on myself because I'm the one who is playing. In a game, it's not like I can copy them because it's not realistic so I focus on myself but I definitely look at Cancelo because he plays in that full-back