I agree with a lot of it. And I will admit that you might be right that a DM should not be a priority. But I do think Rice would be a significant upgrade on both Fred and McTominay. I dont think any of them is a natural DM, and I do think Rice is. I also think one reason we play them next to eachother is that they complement eachother very well. Both of them has certain limitation making them less suited for playing DM.
In Freds case, he is very reactive and not disciplined enough in his positioning. I also think he is too weak physically (can be bullied in a one on one) and too prone to error. I also feel he lacks awareness or the ability to sense/understand where there will be danger (a bit silly, but a few players do, like an invert goalgetter). I would prefer him a bit higher up the pitch.
McTominay, on the other hand, is very good defensively. Rarely f*cks up too. But IMO he is not a very good passer of the ball. He spends a bit too much time with the ball and is not good enough in the build-up phase. I also think he could be an attacking threat if we get to move him a bit higher up the pitch.
I do think we often move McTominay deeper since he has the physical presence and «defensive awareness» that Fred lack. Fred, on the other hand, is better when we try to play out from the back as he is more efficient in his passing and the way he use the ball.
In my opinion, Rice is wellrounded and complete DM. Off the ball he is great; he has very good awareness, good physical presence and is very disciplined in his positioning. I also think he is a good passer and good technically. He would have to start offering more going forward, but I do think he has the potential to do that. I’m also unsure of his pace, but I’ve never seen it tested either.
Furthermore, I would not be that worried if we played Rice next to Fred/McT. I would really like to see both of them a bit higher up the pitch. I agree they dont create much going forward and lack a bit of flair, but they have other qualities that we could make better use of higher up the pitch.
And I’m not sure their lack of flair is a problem. Looking at Liverpool last year, I dont think Winjaldum or Fabinho created much either. Same with Chelsea a few years back when they played with Kante/Matic infront of three defenders. We have also seen Man City play a 3231 where the «3+2» offered very little going forward.
Our main focus for next season should be to add symmetry to our team by improving the RB and the RW. That would offer us more flair and creativity going forward and makes us a lot better attacking wise.
