Champions League masterclass underlines Rico Lewis’ Dream Team viability in wake of Rodri’s injury

“THE way Rico is playing, there are no words. He does everything.”

Those the words of Pep Guardiola after Rico Lewis’ (£3.8m) Champions League masterclass against Slovan Bratislava on Tuesday night.

Ilkay Gundogan (£3.5m), Phil Foden (£5.7m), Erling Haaland (£9.2m) and James McAtee (£2m) scored the goals in Manchester City’s 4-0 victory but the 19-year-old defender-cum-midfielder was most worthy of his coach’s lavish praise after the final whistle.

Lewis created three big chances (one finished off by Haaland), registered three shots on target, and contributed to the visitors’ clean sheet in a hugely impressive all-round display that yielded 18 Dream Team points.

The England international has been something of a cheat code in Dream Team so far this season.

Having previously been a bit-part player at the Etihad, he’s now a regular starter and key man for the defending champions.

Lewis started the campaign at just £3m and is still affordable now at £3.8m, though he’s destined for another price increase after his 20-point haul in Gameweek 6.

There are more games to come this Gameweek but at the time of writing, Lewis is ranked third among assets in his position with 58 points to his name in total at an average of 7.3 per appearance.

His third assist of the season means he now leads the way in the playmaking department among defenders.

The main reason City’s homegrown star is such an appealing Dream Team option is his specialised role in Guardiola’s tactical set-up.

Categorised as a defender and therefore eligible for clean sheet points, Lewis is most commonly deployed as an additional midfielder – taking up some extremely advanced positions at times.

John Stones (£4m) fulfilled a similar role with great effect last season.

And the experiment is likely to continue not only because Lewis has thrived in such areas, but because of Rodri’s unfortunate lay-off.

The Spain international is widely considered the best deep-lying midfielder in the world but an ACL injury has prematurely ended his season.

While nobody is on Rodri’s level, City are hardly short of quality midfielders but at this stage it seems as if Lewis will get plenty of minutes this term.

It may even be the case that the teenager is able to play alongside Kyle Walker (£3.9m) when the latter is deployed as a more orthodox right-back.

Although Dream Team bosses should know by now that no individual is totally immune to Guardiola’s rotation policy.

Essentially, Lewis is an affordable, in-form asset who is being played out of position (in the best way possible) for one of the strongest teams in Europe – a godsend for Dream Team managers!

His current ownership of 13.5% makes him the fifth-most selected defender in the game but it wouldn’t be a surprise if he cracked the top three in the coming weeks.

City are due to face Fulham, Wolves, Sparta Prague, Southampton and Tottenham before the end of the month.