He has been good, no one is denying that but he is also not a 105m player. He is doing a decent to good job in a stable system. So good for Arsenal
Declan Rice | Arsenal £105m player
- Thread starter Samid
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They beat City and all but again it’s another top games with complete lack of control with Rice in midfield. They’re playing these games at home as if it’s away
Playing City home or away doesn't negate the plan or strategy to beat them. You have to be disciplined whether you're in front of your home crowd or not.
After the third minute, the best team in the world had two shots for the rest of the match and zero significant chances. That's a "complete lack of control"?
Control isn't just about pinging a zillion little passes around your back line and being able to keep possession. And to the extent that is important, Arsenal had Jorginho and Zinchenko in the lineup for those purposes.
Rice has been fantastic. He’s been ridiculous at stopping opposition counter attacks and a critical part of our defensive record, and seeming increased level of domination of games. Isn’t perfect on the ball but hardly a negative.
They were playing City. Nobody controls the game against them. Arsenal kept them to one shot on target. Not sure how you can expect much better than that. Possession wise was 48-52. Against City, that is pretty good.
Can you name a striker that moved this past window which would have helped us.
Rasmus seemed nailed on for ManUtd and even he is no sure bet. Ideally we should have got a winger but it seems we tried (for Neto) and failed.
Hopefully that gets fixed in Jan.
(Also Havertz can be considered part Striker aswell)
Some people still going on about how he’s not worth the money. Probably the same people who said nobody will pay £100m for him.
The best players cost a lot of money unless you can get them to run their contracts down. Rice is young as well so Arsenal are getting a lot of years out of him.
He’s not perfect in every aspect of his game but he’s one of the very best in his position. This is widely held by anyone who has no axe to grind.
The best players cost a lot of money unless you can get them to run their contracts down. Rice is young as well so Arsenal are getting a lot of years out of him.
He’s not perfect in every aspect of his game but he’s one of the very best in his position. This is widely held by anyone who has no axe to grind.
Very good signing for Arsenal. He's what we should have done instead of spending £70m last season on Casemiro for half a season of decent performances. We're now stuck with a £300k+ a week liability in midfield.
West Ham would not have sold him to us that summer.
For £100m they probably would have.
It was a very poor game. There wasn't any drive or tempo in it and it was all about tactics and not going outside any task. A own goal that won the game shows just that.
Statistic for "defensive" players should be pretty good in games like that. Even if I don't look at statistics as something that is important. Because statistic can be misleading. Players like Saliba, Gabriel and Jorginho did brilliantly in central line.
Ah my bad, I didn't think you lost away at Everton - I just assumed everyone beat them
.We are not fortunate, We basically played Saka/Martinelli/ESR for a long time when they were not ready. We suffered and were eighth in the league.
They are the player they are for the talent they have and more importantly for the faith and investment put in them.
Part of the reason Arsenal finished 8th in Arteta first full season was that.
You should also do that ideally with Garnacho and Hannibal. They may not be ready but if you don't play them they may never be.
If he stays this influential for their game for 6/7 seasons it’s small potatoes. We have spent that and then some over the years just trying to get a good consistent first teamer as have many others. Reminds me of the undervaluing of say a Henderson for Liverpool and likewise other supporters laughing at the likes of a fletcher in our lineups.
Didn’t Liverpool like salute their fans in a long line when they won a game recently? City have over a 100 charges against them which the sports media don’t mention because Murdoch veto’s it. This forum is now bigging up McTom due to an amazing cameo after years of wanting him no where near our starting line up…if we ever beat city again I’m gonna be emotional myself.
That’s the price you pay these days, it’s not just attackers that are expensive. Who cares if they overpaid anyways, the question is if he’s doing the business and so far he’s doing what they bought him for. If they end up winning the league or other trophies in the next 5 years then it will work itself out
Justified his spend, what's good about Rice is it's very definitive what he brings to the midfield great positional play, brilliant reading of the game, can knock a pass and screens the back line if necessary. Worth every penny realistically as he's young and has maintained playing at premier League level for a while.
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Ok, but you keep saying he should be doing more. What exactly do you mean by that? He's primarily a DM and he has fixed our over reliance on an injury prone Partey.
As someone said earlier, the 3 most expensive league signings are all deep lying midfielders. They are a highly sought after type of player as teams are increasingly trying to play out from the back more.
agreed. Would have been fantastic signing for us (utd).
Yeah I think when you consider Lavia who is 19 and relatively inexperienced went to Chelsea for £58mil, I'd rather pay almost double for Rice who's got considerably more experience but still only 24. We have enough kids in the team and especially in midfield, need more seasoned players.
I agree, he's worth the amount, when fans attend live performances and not just TV it really highlights how significant the movement of a particular player is I think Declan has been top 3 in world football at his role, he's just transitioned what he was doing at West Ham to Arsenal. I always maintained United should have signed him when the club was quoted 60m many seasons ago.
Fantastic player. His best quality is no matter the opposition, he plays pretty much the same game.
It's not exactly crazy. Who's better? Rodri, Kimmich, Tchouameni and if you want to keep counting Casemiro him too. He's not far off these players at all.
Some of this may be nitpicks, but here goes. Even in the clip above that is supposed to be showcasing his defensive abilities, there are things he could do better. Here are some:
- Better progressive passing (and better passing in general; missed some passes when he wasn't under a ton of pressure)
- Actively make himself more available for the ball instead of sauntering around at times
- Better ball recipient on the half turn
- An interception is not the end of things. After doing so, try to get the ball to a teammate to retain possession and relieve pressure. Same for clearances.
- Be more judicious about when to go for interceptions, especially when diving in from behind. Those are good and well, but sometimes it's better to just contain rather than go for the interception. In the last clip of that video I think it led to a lot of open space when he vacated to try and intercept and City attacked into that space.
Well I won't pretend to have seen all of Arsenal's game but the games I have seen (vs United, vs City, vs Spurs (one half), vs Forest), maybe apart from yesterday's second half against City, none of the other game I would say he has been a real dominant force. There have been multiple moments where the game passes by him. He plays a safe game. Is he the best DM I have seen ? Absolutely not.
That doesn't mean he hasn't done a good job for you guys till now. My Original post was a response to a united supporter who said he would have been amazing for us( which by the way I agree) but knowing how impatient United fans (and maybe fans in general) that similar performance would have termed average. For ex- some fans have already called amrabat an average footballer. It doesn't mean I am calling Rice an average footballer.
Well yeah, it is, because you easily reeled off 3 players better than him. I do think he's good, but the hyperbole around him is odd and people saying "that's what you have to pay these days", just isn't true. We literally had him up against Palhinha the other week, who easily matched him in that role and cost less than a 5th of what he did,
We will see this season now he's playing at a higher level where he will sit in world standing, there's a chance he could be top 3 this year, we have to see though.
My point is, regardless of the pain suffered to bring them through...it's almost unheard of to unearth two gems from within at the same time in such important positions.
Every other club in the league aiming to be at the top has £50-100m wingers for that very reason, top players don't just come through the revolving door. It's why the class of 92 and the Iniesta/Messi/Busquets era of La Masia are so highly thought of.
Fair points but yes, being very nitpicky there. Though I think we'll see more progressive passing if he plays with Partey, which he hasn't really done (and when he did Partey was an inverted RB). IMO Rice has solved our over reliance on Partey and is his long term replacement.
I don't know, I think Rice would come into your midfield and clean it right up. If ETH wants to persist with playing Mount and Bruno, Rice could absolutely do the job Case can't seem to do anymore.
He will be an upgrade to this version of case but he won't fix everything. We did have a brilliant casemiro for most of the season but we were still far off City and you guys. Our problem are elsewhere as well. Again, Rice would have been amazing but if the result went south he would have made a scapegoat for the price he was purchased.
I see what you're saying. I do feel like in general, people hyperbolise the difference in quality between players. Take Kim Min Jae for example. 2 seasons ago he's playing for Fenerbache, last season has an incredible season for Napoli and is now considered one of the best in the world in his position. But equally, sometimes players inherently have the qualities of one of the best. KMJ had these as does Rice (mentally and physically).
He's a defensive midfielder. He did a lot of battling and defending with good success and provided a few good passes going forward to support play on top of that, against the strongest team and the strongest team in midfield areas in the league.
It doesnt seem like you understand or appreciate what a defensive midfielder's job is. He was a lot more effective than Jorginho overall, just because he made less passes doesnt change that. Being a midfielder especially one in deep areas isnt about passing alone. And thats all Jorginho did, but with less key passes than Rice
KMJ did help his team win a league too and perform in the CL, but I do take your point. Even with that, I don't think we'd be calling him a top 3 CB in the world very casually.
I think Rice has obvious quality, but he's still yet to show it at the very top level - he has his opportunity this season though.
And sometimes players have a breakout season and go on to be the best. Not saying he is, but just saying it’s not impossible
I think we should ask Varane, Martinez, Lindelof and Onana if they'd like Rice in front of them.
He wouldn’t have cost a fifth this summer though, what were Bayern willing to pay, £60m for a 28 year old?
I think a player like De jong will make United even more successful than a Rice. Casemiro wasn't the problem last season, even this season he has contributed with his goals. And as I said in my previous reply to you rice will make us better compared to rhiss version of Casemiro but he will not solve much of our problem. United are in a different mess right now which is beyond a manager or a player like rice.
No, not this summer. I'm just trying to dispel the suggestion that Rice was the only value for money purchase. Brighton get pluck one out every year, Baleba seems like he could be the next one.