Declan Rice has emerged as one of the standout summer signings in the Premier League this season, impressing with his performances at Arsenal. The Gunners made a significant investment, breaking their transfer record, to acquire the English midfielder in the recent transfer window, a move that has proven to be a shrewd piece of business for the club.
While Rice is widely regarded as a fantastic midfielder, one area where he may have room for improvement is in scoring goals. Graeme Souness has suggested that this aspect of his game might be limiting him from reaching the status of a world-class player.
However, not everyone agrees with this assessment. Ian Ladyman of the Daily Mail has come to Rice’s defence by drawing a comparison to Sergio Busquets, a midfielder known for his defensive prowess and playmaking abilities, rather than his goal-scoring record. Ladyman’s point is that not all top-class midfielders are prolific goal-scorers, and their contributions extend beyond just finding the back of the net.
He said on the his Daily Mail podcast:
‘My favourite holding midfield player I’ve ever seen play is Sergio Busquets at Barcelona. I think we all agree an absolutely world class player.
‘He played 481 times for Barcelona in LaLiga over 15 years, how many goals do you think he scored? Eleven, good effort.”
He added: ‘The point is made that there is a role for Rice to play in that Arsenal team obviously, He played quite deep yesterday. I’m not sure that scoring goals has to be part of that.’
Just Arsenal Opinion
Rice is the complete midfielder as far as we are concerned and it does not matter if he scores many goals.
He clearly meets expectations at the Emirates, which is all that matters now. It would be great if he scored more goals, but he must do his primary job first.
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One pundit suggested the Englishman could get a statue before Christmas base on sheer performance, now that maybe pushing the envelope a little, but the former West Ham has been immense since his arrival.
To be compared with Busquets is praise indeed.In terms of intelligence and decision making he is probably the best DM I have seen.Mind you,the fact that he was supported by Xhavi and Iniesta who were on the same wave length , made life relatively easy for Sergio, but, nevertheless, he was a truly “world class” player.Who knows,ten years down the line, Arsenal fans may be recalling the great midfield trio of Rice, Odegaard and ?.
He’s not like busquets – he’s not good at the pivot role because his close control isn’t at that level, but he’s got a great engine, pace and can do a bit of everything. Similar defensive instincts, I suppose.
He doesn’t need to score loads of goals to be a great player but I think he should try to improve that part of his game – why not?