look at his long passing. Then he has the best progressive carries for a midfielder in the league. All the whilst he has the best positioning for a tackle whilst making the cleanest and crispiest tackles that never hurt a shin, ankle or getting a red card. This is how he plays under only really being coached by Moyes and Southgate. If Ten Hag can improve him through coaching like he has nearly every player at the club - he is going to be great.
Declan Rice | signs for arsenal
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There's no way I see us having enough budget for Rice, frontline striker, KMJ, Costa and another CM. Plus looks like he's already set on Arsenal. Long shot imo
Rice is a great player. Casemiro being out really cost us as we had no ready-made replacement. Not sure if they both can play together in the same team though.
It's all noise but we should be aiming to signthe best players in the world. He is probably up there. But we desperately need a striker and a gk. Unless this sale goes through soon we're going to be stuck in limbo on the transfer front and then it'll be too late. Then if we don't get into the top four next season we're going to struggle to land top players. Gawd that sounds pessimistic but this morning looking at all the other clubs landing their targets I don't feel optimistic
Constantly loses and runs away from the midfield battle, puts himself as another CB, boosts his defensive stats, then runs on a break.
No top team wants to play like that, it's the opposite.
Call me crazy but I think Mount has a higher ceiling than him.
I agree that we desperately need a Striker, CB and I would argue GK, I do not think it any less important we sign a midfielder, the drop of when Casemiro was not available last season was clear, and Eriksen whilst a great player cannot play 60+ games and remain effective, Fred and McT are just not good enough to fill in. I would argue we nee a minimum of 2 midfielders, even with Amad coming back, if that is Mount and Rice so be it, they are both a step up from Fred/McT and capable of rotating in with Casemiro and Eriksen.... there may be other, better, cheaper options but if they turn out to be the players ETH wants then good enough for me
I think your team saw at the end of the season what the cumulative effect of lots of games can be. Let’s see how you get on next year.
Could be who knows , but the thing is if we are targeting Mount then I wouldn't want Rice the same Summer , despite rating him highly or him being of completely different profile .
With all the reports it seems We are targeting Mount as No 8 based on his attributes so there is bound to be period of adjustment , something similar would happen to Rice as well because he can't play No 6 role for United in a way he plays that for West Ham .
So Our two big money midfield signings requiring to adapt to different roles or different way of playing could prove to be problematic going forward .
What he does well, he does really well. Defensively rock solid player in front of back 4, but biggest issue is the build up phase - he’s not gonna help any side play sexy football out from the back like a Rodri. But if he is allowed to counter attack and get in final third, he has a goal in him. So a very tricky player to get your head round and how to maximise him within an elite set up. At a team like West Ham you can be more of a generalist and get away with certain flaws in the build up phase - this would potentially get exposed at a higher level but he does seem very coachable and a great lad. So could envisage a Hendo like improvement in terms of ball retention under pressure in own third.
You're definitely crazy. Two very different players any way.
You tried to compete with them last year but still fell well short. I just think last season is as good as it’s gonna get for Arsenal. Kinda like the time Leicester won the league, Arsenal looked well positioned to win the league but still weren’t good enough. With Liverpool having a poor season, Chelsea and Spurs being absolute dog shite and United in their first season with ten Hag this was Arsenal’s best chance to win the league, all those teams will be better next season but I don’t think Arsenal can get much better
Great video.
A lot of his strengths are not important for a CDM, and a lot of his weaknesses are very important for a CDM. He is flawed.
A more managers player than fans. A very tactical player than a flashy one with the ability to block a third of the pitch by himself through positioning alone and have fans complain that he does nothing. Also rice changed his gameplay this season with more carries and runs,which shows that that pythogaras video was about last season, though not wrong per time.
I would say hes the exact opposite, lots of run, big tackles, difficult to use tactically due to his flaws.
Stats are not everything.
Feel he'll join Arsenal. Maybe it's even agreed since couple of weeks ago just a case of waiting for season to finish.
Fergie would have snapped him up years ago. As with Haaland there was an opportunity and a clear need, but our top brass did different things.
I'd absolutely love him here, but that ship sailed.
I'd absolutely love him here, but that ship sailed.
That’s what Fergie was known for..spending money on midfield reinforcements!
If he were managing today we would have mid 40s Carrick still anchoring the midfield
Yeah convinced that's the case
Haaland was down to Mourinho and others around the club. Cannot for the life of me not understand that for just £4m
looks like someone woke up and smashed their head, 92 mil, yeah right ....
I hope West Ham take Arsenal to the cleaners with this transfer. He’s just captained them to a European trophy, that must be worth an extra £20m on top of the £100m they’re already looking for? 
Haaland was never coming here , his career has been well planned moving to Club like United was never a serious option on his end early in his career , heck he rejected United twice before moving to City .
That's a good video to show any of the naysayers.
What I've been most impressed with any time I've watched is how quickly he drives thru the midfield. Much more a ball carrier, much like Frankie de Jong. I can see why ETH wants him in the team.
Here's one for the memesters - like Pogba without the flair. Good ol' hearty, indispensable Rice.
Hello Crazy
So why does Solskjaer say he offered him then
The similarity between him and FdJ starts and stops with carries, which FdJ is still much superior (96th vs 86th percentile). De Jong is also in the 97th percentile for passes attempted, pass completion rate and progressive passes, he’s a unicorn.
If you can’t get 95 points you’re not winning the league next year, I don’t think this Arsenal side have shown they have the ability to get to that level, that’s players and manager included.
Yeah who will never sign for us ever
The thing is people keep claiming the game play has changed but he was already top of the charts in terms of carries and runs last season, which was mentioned in the video. He's just got even better at it. So I don't see that as a gameplay shift, just becoming more refined at what he's already been good at.
I don't think he is even an option for us. Not quite the type of player we need anyway.
Which has no bearing on the fact that Rice isn’t similar to him.
I made the point they were both adding some drive to their midfields with the way they carried the ball forward from deep. That's all. You can rest easy and take a break from the stats book now.
Never made any sense to me as a target for us after we signed Casemiro.
And good a player though he would be for another one of the top four contenders, at anything like £92m he certainly carries opportunity cost for them in terms of where they can strengthen elsewhere.
And good a player though he would be for another one of the top four contenders, at anything like £92m he certainly carries opportunity cost for them in terms of where they can strengthen elsewhere.
Yes. Despite his size he's deceivingly good with his footwork and holding off challenges as he takes on a player. He's not all about it though as he's an underrated passer as well. So he can do either - work with the ball, or let the ball do the work by spreading play.
I think he's more in the mould of, and with more potential than, prime Matic at Chelsea.
Matic wasn't just a a big unit DM, he likes a pass and would take players on - more reliant on his strength than Rice but regardless. He liked to get involved in buildup play as well as being a physical DM. I think Rice can be better than Matic was at his best.
5 points behind the best team in the world over a 38 game season, whilst losing to City twice during it is 'well short' is it?
You clearly don't like Arsenal, so you enjoy saying that type of thing, but they are so young and well set for many years, not sure why you compare to Leicester, other teams came in and took their best players. Arsenal will certainly finish above Man Utd next season as things stand, only City will be above them and Rice thinks he can help close the gap further.
That's how i see him too. I hope being surrounded by much better players and an attacking system will unlock a better version of him. But still: 92 millions is insane.
They got 34 pts from 19 games in the 2nd half of the season.5 points behind the best team in the world over a 38 game season, whilst losing to City twice during it is 'well short' is it?
You clearly don't like Arsenal, so you enjoy saying that type of thing, but they are so young and well set for many years, not sure why you compare to Leicester, other teams came in and took their best players. Arsenal will certainly finish above Man Utd next season as things stand, only City will be above them and Rice thinks he can help close the gap further.
Their 1st half was phenomenal, no doubt about that, but it still remains to be seen whether that’s a purple patch. There’s nothing certain about them finishing above United, Liverpool, Newcastle next season when their xPts is much closer to those than City even this season.
And let’s not omit the fact that they finished ‘only’ 5 pts behind City is because the latter won it with 3 games to spare.
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