Liverpool legend Graeme Souness has reiterated his criticism of Declan Rice for his lack of goalscoring ability, even after the midfielder’s move to Arsenal.
Rice is highly regarded as one of Europe’s top midfielders, particularly for his role as a defensive midfielder who excels in winning back possession for his team.
His defensive prowess was a key factor in Arsenal’s decision to break their transfer record to bring him to the club, and his ability in this area has never been a concern for his former club, West Ham.
However, the aspect that Souness believes Rice needs to improve is his goal-scoring ability. Despite playing primarily as a defensive midfielder, Souness argues that becoming a complete midfielder would require Rice to contribute more goals to his game, regardless of his position on the field.
He tells Talk Sport:
‘The only criticism I had of Declan, was that he did not get enough goals, and I am still standing by that.
‘Just because you’re a defensive midfield player does not mean you can’t chip in with goals.’
Just Arsenal Opinion
Rice plays his role on the pitch very well, that is all that matters, but it would be a good idea if he chips in with some important goals in matches.
Sometimes, the attackers are out of form and the team needs goals from other parts of the pitch.
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Mr souness and controversy!! Declan has nothing to prove to you sir. He’s just a young lad trying to get the best of his career
If we play Havertz and Martinelli ahead of him in a midfield three then will have a tough enough job on the defensive side
If he’s going to sit like makelele, well look how many goals makelele scored, and he’s one of the greats, if he’s going to play further forwards, adding more goals would be great, but he did get the odd one for whu. As long as he helps make the team play well, I won’t care if he never scores tbf
I think we have enough firepower on our frontline at the moment (despite not having a ‘pure’ striker that can produce 30 goals per season). I’d prefer rice to do what he is best and stabilize our defense. How many goals he scored is not that important imho.
I think he can get a many goals as Partey does for us. It depends on how he will be deployed. Box to Box he will score enough.
The same was said about Odegaard and Xhaka, but look how they were transformed last season..