In his first league start for Arsenal, Declan Rice thrived playing the No 6 role, while Thomas Partey played an inverted right-back role. Amidst all the doubts about Arsenal’s midfield being defensive, with him being the sole holding midfielder, and with Havertz playing in front of him as a double eight, the Gunner’s midfield vs Forest was solid enough to withstand pressure
There was no complaint about Rice’s performance versus Forest; all that was there was were compliments. There’s no doubt Rice will grow into the world-class midfielder he dreams of being at Arsenal. However, to ultimately reach that Liverpool legend, Graeme Souness has identified two things the 24-year-old needs to add to his game to reach his peak.
“Is Declan Rice a great player? Not yet, but he could be if he can improve on these two very important aspects of being a world-class midfielder.
“Firstly, he needs to score more goals. Secondly, he has to make that cute, clever pass forward to create chances for others instead of being content to go square and safe. Unfortunately, I’m not sure they are qualities that can be coached.
“This is Arsenal. They want to win the league and challenge Manchester City. You won’t do that without midfield players chipping in with goals,” Souness wrote in his column for the Daily Mail.
It should blow our minds how much better Declan Rice will be under Mikel Arteta and playing with quality players like the ones at Arsenal.
What a time to be a Gooner!
Sam P
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Souness is right. Rice has the opportunity now.
Not really related, but when pundits are on TV eg. Souness and Redknapp, they put under their names the cups and leagues they have won, Souness as player or manager, 10 leagues, 20 cups or whatever, Redknapp, 1 league Cup (with the mob from N17). Always tickles me.
Maybe, because his long shots were pretty good
His defending efforts were good. But I just haven’t seen the 180-degree turns in tight spaces from him, that Partey and Jorginho often made
An elite CDM should always be able to make us escape from the opposition’s high-press. I guess Arteta hasn’t trusted him for the escape job yet, hence he was accompanied by Partey and Timber in deep-midfield area
Gai, I sincere hope Arteta use Rice to the best of his ability. He is supposed to be another Rodri, Alex Song or even Busket for Arsenal. Using him like xhaka will not work in my opinion because Xhaka has better technical skill and positional awareness. I think Rice is suited as a natural DM and he doesn’t have to score many goals in a season. He would be the best DM for Arsenal. Pathey is an alround midfielders and one of the best 5 in Epl. Arteta should take a clue from how Egland national team use Rice to their advantage.
Rice played DM for the Hammers, but in a double-pivot formation. I think he needs to train more for the CDM role, because he produced back-passes excessively and rarely turned
I also think Rice has better ball control than Xhaka, but Xhaka has a better positioning skill and strong left-foot, which made him better suited for the left AM role
I don’t really expect a defensive midfielder to score many goals. If he scores,it will be a bonus. How many goals did Rodri score last season for City? How many goals did Kante score at Chelsea? Interestingly,Rodri,who is regarded as the best DM in the League by most of these pundits,scored fewer goals than Rice,despite playing in a far better side.
One of the best defensive midfielders ever was Claude makelele and he couldn’t score if his life depended on it.
Better yet, how many goals does modric score? Less than 1 every 10 games. He’s one of the best midfielders of the last 10 years or so, and he’s not even a defensive midfielder.
Rice just has to show he can impose himself on big games over a decent period of time. It’s not necessarily easy to quantify, but if he does that, he’s world class.
No I’d expect ESR to be there though but that’s only if he gets game time. Rice needs to cover the goals that ESR would score in a season which is a task I don’t believe he’ll even get close to.
If we want to score more goals buy a striker. Rice will do the job we bought him for, goals from him will be a bonus, but goals are not the way I will judge him. Pundits are paid to be opinionated and some are controversial, who cares what Souness has to say? What Rice does exceptionally well is he snuffs out danger before it happens, it’s not flashy but his reading of the game is second to none.
He won’t score a single goal 23/24 – he’s no Granit Xhaka. Far from.
I expect some goals but certainly not a top scorer by any stretch of the imagination.
I doubt that Rice will miraculously become a top goal scorer. He may chip in with one or two, but he’s not known for his finishing, although I thought he looked a bit out of luck on Saturday with his shots on target.
New signings need time to adjust to a new club with new tactics. Rice needs to fully settle in before any expectations are made. A minimum of a dozen games in my view. That goes for Havertz and Timber too.
Well, his long shots were great against forest. Sooner or later, the ball starts sneaking in. He can get atleast 5 to 10 goals this season.