With every passing test and every passing influential performance, it's getting harder and harder to explain just what Rico Lewis is doing at Manchester City.
From a senior City debut against Bayern Munich, to a start at the Nou Camp against Barcelona, and a host of domestic landmarks in recent weeks in some of English football's most difficult environments. Not to mention a Champions League goal on his first start, still at 17 years old.
Lewis has gone from a youth-teamer called up for City's pre-season tour to get experience, to a player Pep Guardiola relies upon to win a vital Premier League game at Chelsea. And Guardiola's post-match praise ramped up a notch at Stamford Bridge with a comparison of the highest order.
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"There are players who play for themselves really well, but he has the ability to make all the team play better," added Guardiola. "He has this ability and it's not easy to find it. He is our little Philipp Lahm."
Guardiola also declared that Lewis makes other players - like Kevin De Bruyne no less - play better, and the right-back undoubtedly restored some balance to City's formation after an experimental first half. His ability to cover both right-back and defensive midfield is something of a handy mix between the qualities of Joao Cancelo and Kyle Walker, and has allowed City to finally perfect the back-three formation after years of trying. That's a feat that shouldn't be underestimated.
After his various cameos and recent starts, Lewis has been hailed as a player who could represent City for the next decade by his manager, and Guardiola said it was 'impossible' to play better than him after his Carabao Cup performance against Liverpool last month. He's featured in every game since, playing well each time.
To keep Walker and Cancelo out of the team, regardless of their respective fitness issues after the World Cup, is another achievement that shouldn't go unnoticed. His rapid rise is so much that the upcoming FA Cup and Carabao Cup double header could even see him rested for the next Premier League game in order to give Walker and Cancelo more game time. That next league game, by the way, is a Manchester derby at Old Trafford, which Lewis must surely be in contention to start.
If he does, he will have faced Bayern, Barcelona, Chelsea (twice), Liverpool, Manchester United, and Everton all in his first ten or so appearances - plus Champions League outings against Copenhagen and Sevilla. These aren't easy games to be starting your senior career in.
So normally, Guardiola and City would temper expectations of a talented youngster coming through. Look how long it took for City to give Phil Foden a regular role in the first team, even if senior figures at the club had long earmarked him as a future star, and Guardiola had called him the best young player he had ever worked with.
Players like Cole Palmer, Tommy Doyle, Taylor Harwood-Bellis, James McAtee and Liam Delap have all been praised by Guardiola when representing the first team, but all of their respective development plans have been carefully managed - Delap being a prime example despite his goalscoring debut against Bournemouth. Even Josh Wilson-Esbrand, hailed by the boss as a left-back solution this season, has barely featured aside from a handful of substitute appearances.
Yet it seems Guardiola can hardly contain his excitement about Lewis, and to compare him to World Cup winner and Bayern legend Lahm is perhaps the biggest pointer yet to what City really think of their new right-back option. Lahm's transformation into a defensive midfielder under Guardiola was key to their success at Bayern, and was an important factor in Germany's 2014 World Cup win.
Lahm was the conductor to Bayern and Germany in the latter stages of his career, and was another player who made the players around him perform better. The comparisons are understandable given Guardiola's history and Lewis' role in his system, but maybe the comments should be taken more that the manager feels he has a player suited to that role for the first time at City, rather than encouraging any excessive comparisons.
It's far too early to say if Lewis can even get close to the player Lahm was, and it would be unfair to expect him to after only 10 senior appearances. What it does show, though, is that City appear to be taking a different approach when it comes to Lewis, where they don't feel the need to manage expectations - either from Lewis, or from the outside world.
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