Rico Lewis has claimed that Manchester City have a player who is one of the best in the Premier League in one specific area.
Lewis’ claim can be attributed to several of his teammates, who are specialists at certain traits and one of the standouts in those regards in the entirety of the league.
For instance, apart from Trent Alexander-Arnold, does the English top-flight have a crosser of the ball potentially even on the same level as Kevin De Bruyne?
Even in this case, one would argue that De Bruyne trumps Alexander-Arnold as a crosser due to how many assists he gets from whipping the ball into the box.
Similarly, the Premier League does not have a natural finisher of Erling Haaland’s ilk, who seems like he was born to score goals, even though the likes of Alexander Isak, Ollie Watkins and Ivan Toney are all brilliant strikers.
Harry Kane was his closest competitor in this respect but he left Tottenham Hotspur last summer.
Lewis says City player is one of the best in the Premier League in one area
Similarly, apart from Luis Diaz and Kaoru Mitoma, one doubts if there is a winger who is better at beating his man than Jeremy Doku in England.
Even if some of the aforementioned City players are not considered the best when it comes to their standout traits, they are right up there.
Both in the Premier League and across world football.
As a result, Pep Guardiola’s men are often hailed for the quality they possess, just like Arsenal and Liverpool also are.
However, Rico Lewis has claimed that one of his teammates is one of the best in the Premier League at one v one defending.
The obvious answer would be Kyle Walker.
But when quizzed about which one trait of Nathan Ake would he love to add to his game, Rico Lewis mentioned one v one defending.
“Someone said he’s the best and not just at City.”
“I agree as well. He’s one of the best in the league at one v one defending”, he said on Sky Sports.
Rico Lewis would be virtually flawless if he had this Nathan Ake trait
One can understand why Rico Lewis would love to have this trait that Nathan Ake has mastered as he is a right-back by trade.
Of course, Lewis is a quality defender and has done well when facing quality wingers so far in the first-team.
But even so, the Sky Blues’ number 82 has room to improve as one v one defender, unlike Ake, who is brilliant at limiting the amount of space a wideman has to run into while finding a balance between being aggressive and jockeying.
Perhaps Rico Lewis’ lack of elite athleticism, both in terms of his pace and stature do not help him in this regard, unlike Nathan Ake, who is both explosive and tough to get the better of in duels.
