Rico Lewis Reveals the Most Important Lesson He Learned From Pep Guardiola at Manchester City

Rico Lewis Reveals the Most Important Lesson He Learned From Pep Guardiola at Manchester City Rico Lewis broke into the Manchester City first-team squad under Pep Guardiola in 2022. Ask what a young player picks up under Pep Guardiola and the obvious answers are tactical: positional rotations, inverted full-backs and the endless drills that turned Manchester City into a passing machine. Lewis, one of the few City Football Academy graduates, to successfully become a first-team regular during the Catalan’s decade at the club, has a different answer. Alongside Phil Foden and Nico O’Reilly, Lewis holds the rare distinction of going from an U18s star to someone Guardiola trusted in big games and with regular starts. When asked recently what he learned from four years under the legendary coach, the 21-year-old says the lesson that truly stuck had nothing to do with shape or system. The power of collective belief Speaking to Give Me Sport , Lewis was asked what he had taken from Guardiola and how he was adjusting to life under a new manager. “Obviously Pep was very demanding and rightfully so. I think that’s the way you win things,” the full-back said. Lewis broke into the City first-team in a year of relentless winning; within 10 months of his Premier League debut (against Bournemouth in August 2022), the Blues had won a historic treble. Other career highlights include scoring in an FA Cup semi-final and earning his first caps for England’s senior squad, although he recently went nearly two years without being called up by Thomas Tuchel. He pointed to the mentality of the squad at the time as the biggest reason why Manchester City were the dominant force in English football for nearly all of Guardiola’s tenure. “The togetherness of the team and the belief in the system and the belief that we’re going to win - I think that’s greater than any tactic, going into every game thinking we’re going to win this game, we’re better than the other team," Lewis added. Guardiola has since moved on, with Enzo Maresca now steering Manchester City through a packed schedule, and Lewis has had to adjust to new methods and fresh ideas in the process. The England international said: “You can take that [belief] with you wherever you go, instead of a tactic or a system. If you have that personal belief or team belief that you’re going to go and win, I think that’s stronger than anything else." It is a mindset that could serve him well in the months and years ahead. Still chasing a settled role in Maresca’s side and a way back into Tuchel’s England squad, Lewis has plenty left to prove. Rumours linking the youngster with a move away from Manchester surfaced last summer and have been swirling again ahead of the January window, with Nottingham Forest named as potential suitors, having made a serious attempt to sign the versatile star in 2025. He will be eyeing a potential start in the mid-December Carabao Cup quarter-final against Bradford at the Etihad Stadium, but what the future holds for Lewis at club level remains uncertain.