Diego Rico

Solanke Ibe Rico kelly cook Wilson on.loan all have failed so far.yes lerma brooks Ramsdale travers have wall been good.but this year money on solanke in particular had been wasteful.
 
There's been a lot of chatter on here as to why Rico hasn't been picked since the return and, instead, we've been playing Smith out of position at LB instead. If you cast your minds back I think the answer makes sense but the outcome raises questions.

Whilst Rico had a good start to the season and seemed to be coming along, ultimately he was dropped. My opinion as to why is that he simply wasn't being dynamic enough. Sure, he has a good cross on him but he wasn't pushing forward to make overlaps which is something we've traditionally always needed from our fullbacks.

When Stacey came into the side, he offered that missing forward thrust from the fullback role and looked very handy indeed. It helped change the whole outlook of the team. We know this is something Smith also offers and something that he has also done from left back for us very effectively in the past.

Just before the lockdown, despite results, we were starting to look more like our old selves with Stacey and Smith helping to provide a danger down the flanks. We come out of the lockdown needing points in two crucial games so it made absolute sense to stick with the setup that had been working so well last time we played.

The mystery is why, having played our two most dynamic fullbacks, we had absolutely zero attacking thrust forward including in the places where you would expect to see the two of them bursting through. There were a couple of times when I saw Stacey further forward in the last match but it was, if we're kind, sporadic. Nothing to put the fear into the opposition and make them wary of breaking forward themselves, thus pinning back their attacking threat.

Those criticising the original choice to not play Rico seem to have forgotten that it was the right call based on the most recent playing information we had available. However, given what we've seen on the pitch since football restarted it feels like it would be a mistake to carry on without a change. Whether that's Rico or Kelly remains to be seen but I do expect to see a change for the next match.
 
I think the rumours of him being home sick and wanting to go back to Spain are probably true and therefore Eddie is playing others as he knows Rico isn’t in his long term plans.

shame really
 
Rico used to be like a rhino charging up the flanks when he first arrived. Poor last season but thought he was performing well in the first half of the season. I think Smudge at left back is a good move as let’s Stacey play on the right but don’t think Adam is in good form and not pushing up as much as he used to.
 
AFCBade said:
Rico used to be like a rhino charging up the flanks when he first arrived. Poor last season but thought he was performing well in the first half of the season. I think Smudge at left back is a good move as let’s Stacey play on the right but don’t think Adam is in good form and not pushing up as much as he used to.
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Kelly is also in the mix now as well.
 
Waz afcb said:
Smith can’t play on the left, Newcastle will sit back and he will keep cutting in, playing into their hands. If Rico not up to it then it has to be Kelly, we need that overlapping threat from the full backs to stand any chance of breaking them down.
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Kelly looks like he wanted to get forward in the short cameo we saw last week.
 
The Solanke factor sounds like something coming to Channel 5.....which is probably apt for tonight as if it’s on, you are probably best off avoiding it.
I prefer “Billing’s got talent” :)
 
Agree about Smith not looking great at LB lately.
As I recall, he had one game at LB (last season?) where he was incredible, and then has been pretty ho-hum when he's been put in that position.
Smith is a decent player, I just wish he'd stay on his feet a bit more. He wins a lot of free kicks around the halfway line, but this just gives the opponents time to regroup. If he stayed up long enough to make a pass we'd actually be creating something dangerous.
 
blandford_cherry said:
I think the rumours of him being home sick and wanting to go back to Spain are probably true and therefore Eddie is playing others as he knows Rico isn’t in his long term plans.

shame really
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I think it's more than a rumour. I've heard that he has already informed Eddie that he intends to go back to Spain at the end of this season for family reasons. Think he feels that he needs to be closer to his brother.
 
Garbo said:
If we can recoup 5-7 million on Rico then it would be good business...think Kelly is probably the future?
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Agree, although LB seems to be our Achilles heel doesn’t it. No one has ever permanently dislodged Daniels in about 4/5 signings....Harte, Mings, Rico, Brad Smith, I’m sure there are others
 
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