Capitão Fantástico: Revitalising Ricardo Pereira
It’s possibly unsurprising that a man who was once one of the best full-backs in the Premier League is coping quite well in the Championship - but injuries have robbed us of the right to expect things of Ricardo Pereira. Helen Thompson is just enjoying the Ricky P show.
There's something in the DNA of Leicester City fans that makes us love an underdog, comeback or redemption story even more than the average football fan. Possibly tied to the endless rollercoaster ride that is supporting this team. Or should that be the escalator ride currently?
A lot is being made of the incredible Jannik Vestergaard redemption story and in Harry Winks being underappreciated. Across the team, there are endless opportunities to wax lyrical about young players making a name for themselves, even more new tricks for the old guard of Albrighton and Vardy and the 'what did Brendan do to these players' stories for the likes of the brand new attacking Wilfred Ndidi.
But I'd like to spend some time praising a player who definitely isn't getting the headlines this season: Ricardo Pereira.
Back to his best
Ricardo has started twelve of our sixteen games in the new-look Enzo Maresca team, mainly playing the inverted right wing-back role, before being asked to switch to the left against Sunderland.
Much like James Justin, it’s clear that he is superior on the right, but he still performed admirably. Last ditch tackles, dispossessing his opponents and generally helping us drive forward when the chance allowed. Dare we say it but after three and a half years since the first of his horrific injuries, he looks to be getting back to his best.
When the Fosse Way predictions for where players would be this season were posted, only half of us thought Ricardo would still be at the club in September. I got the call wrong (naturally) and predicted a return to Portugal; not that I wanted him to leave, but he is a player who is too good for the Championship and who owed us very little.
With his achilles injury, he certainly couldn’t have helped our demise last year. But he didn't seem to be a player who pushed for an exit and has ended up playing an even more pivotal role than anticipated. Had you asked us all to predict who the captain would be, I'm not sure many would have pitched for Ricardo?
Donning the captain's armband makes a lot of sense though. At 30, he is one of the more senior members of the squad and one of the few who have been at the club for a while. With the injuries it's easy to forget that he's approaching his sixth year with us. He's a calming figure, though not afraid to call it as he sees it with the matchday officials and he seems to have embraced a leadership role. Unlike last season, it appears we’ve got an abundance of leadership but I’ve been impressed by Ricardo in this role.
Somebody get this man a song!
He isn’t the only player who doesn’t seem to have his name regularly chanted, but it feels like something to rectify. If memory serves, pre injuries he did have an Abba-inspired number, but I don’t recall hearing a song for him recently.
He isn’t the type of player who will rack up a huge amount of goals and assists; much of his hard work comes either defensively or in transition. The player who passes the ball to the guy who gets the assist doesn’t often get that much credit, so Ricardo falls under the radar a little.
I hold a theory that we don’t talk that much about how Ricardo is because it’s just known and obvious. His class is unmistakable. You have to look no further than the calm way he won back possession on several occasions against Sunderland. Or the delectable through ball to provide Kelechi Iheanacho a relative goal on a plate at Swansea last weekend.
This despite a fairly clear plan from Swansea to try and limit the space and opportunities that both Ricardo and Winks had. You can’t keep a good man down for too long though - he may have needed our other players to help relieve the pressure, but he still came away with an assist.
If he deserves more credit within our fanbase, he is due even more outside of the club. Rarely does his name seem to come up in other publications or on podcasts when reference is made to the quality of the squad and the key players. Maresca understands his value though and has helped him rediscover the form that had us all scratching our heads back in 2019 as to why Portugal refused to acknowledge his existence.
Prior to that Jack Grealish incident (the stands haven’t forgotten), he was arguably one of the best right-backs in the Premier League. Claude Puel isn’t remembered fondly by many at Leicester, but credit where it’s due as it was under his management that we signed Ricardo from Porto.
It’s fun to have Ricky P back at it
It’s understandable to have had some doubts about whether we would see a complete return to form for Ricardo. Between the repeat injuries, still nervous any and every time he goes down, and the disjointed season last year, it began to look like he may never get a solid run in the team again. He lost his spot to a strong showing from Timothy Castagne before injury cost him most of the 22/23 season.
To have him back for a full campaign is the main goal and it’s so encouraging to see him playing well, threading through inch-perfect passes. The role he’s being asked to play is expansive and, like a fair amount of our approach, carries its own risks. Sunderland came the closest to exploiting these but on balance, you’d argue him doing this is worth the risk.
Helping provide support and numbers to the attacking line, allowing the lines of Ndidi and Dewsbury-Hall to push forward earlier. Ricardo is a natural fit for the inverted wing-back role too, before injury robbed him of a season last year, we’d started experimenting with playing him in midfield anyway, ahead of Castagne and providing an interesting overlap. He’s always looking to get forward but doesn’t lack pace to get back either.
Ricardo is one of those players that is liked by most. He’s a solid part of any squad and brings a good level of passion and good guy vibes to proceedings. It’s always telling when a player can confess to a mistake and own it; his acknowledgement of a very risky backpass straight to a Swansea player saw Mads Hermansen have to act swiftly to deny the home side a goal. Ricky acknowledging that so openly on his Instagram and crediting his goalkeeper goes a long way.
Ricardo Pereira feels like a perfect fit in the Enzo ethos of: yes, it’s good… but it can be even better.
