Declan Rice: All Hands On Dec

[jones]

This is just reality.
If you want to win big trophies, you will play your best players when they are fit.

I've already said that Rice needs long rest.
It also means that chances to win title again are smaller.
Same goes for Saliba, Saka and any other important player in Arsenal.
I have accepted that.

What's the point of paying Arteta 15m a season if he can only win by playing his best players every single game? Benching Rice doesn't mean we're playing with ten men, it means you utilise your squad which in our case is either 50m backups or highly talented Hale End kids.

Every now and then @outlawz pops in here with his rubbish about "no mercy for these millionaires" and half the forum goes along with it. "B-but Griezmann and Messi do it too" yeah clearly treating Saka like he's a 1 in 100,000 anomaly worked really well for us.

 

[jones]

and constantly doing bursting sprints on defense, the latter part being notorious for injuries because you're reacting to something which often puts your body into a worse position than a premeditated run.

Had almost verbatim the same thing typed out and deleted it, the sudden changes in direction plus the psychological stress involved make it several times worse than a run forward at the same pace.

What makes it even worse you can clearly see how deeply defensive sprints are drilled into the team, players are allowed to rest when in possession but if anyone ever slacked off when tracking back Arteta would have them hanged by the roof of the Emirates.

 

[HattoriHanzo]

What's the point of paying Arteta 15m a season if he can only win by playing his best players every single game? Benching Rice doesn't mean we're playing with ten men, it means you utilise your squad which in our case is either 50m backups or highly talented Hale End kids.

Every now and then @outlawz pops in here with his rubbish about "no mercy for these millionaires" and half the forum goes along with it. "B-but Griezmann and Messi do it too" yeah clearly treating Saka like he's a 1 in 100,000 anomaly worked really well for us.

These 50m backups or highly talented Hale End kids are not good as Rice.
Merino (as backup) wasn't available since late January.

 

[jones]

These 50m backups or highly talented Hale End kids are not good as Rice.
Merino (as backup) wasn't available since late January.

Point of a good manager is they can rotate and still win games. You don't need Rice in every single game

 

[Dokaka]

These 50m backups or highly talented Hale End kids are not good as Rice.
Merino (as backup) wasn't available since late January.

They aren't but you'd rather play them selectively when the drop in quality is less punishing than be forced to play them every game for months because Rice's hamstring exploded.

@jones is right, it's part of managing a team. You simply cannot both argue there were no alternatives to playing Rice and Zubimendi every game when MLS randomly came in at the very tail end of the season and replaced one of them, including in the most important game Arsenal has played in 20 years.

It's a flaw of Arteta, it just is.

 

[outlawz]

It's Keane, probably some performative bullshit for the camera. Doesn't he also have his kids names tattooed on him.

Anyone saying they'd rather go to work than be present for their child's birth either doesn't have kids or should have them taken away. Not even some surgeon who misses it because he's busy saving lives, nah I'll miss the most important moment of my life because I have to go play sports with drunk spastics yelling at me because I kick a ball good.

I don't agree with it - I'm just saying that's the expectation.

 

[outlawz]

What's the point of paying Arteta 15m a season if he can only win by playing his best players every single game? Benching Rice doesn't mean we're playing with ten men, it means you utilise your squad which in our case is either 50m backups or highly talented Hale End kids.

Every now and then @outlawz pops in here with his rubbish about "no mercy for these millionaires" and half the forum goes along with it. "B-but Griezmann and Messi do it too" yeah clearly treating Saka like he's a 1 in 100,000 anomaly worked really well for us.

Never took you to be a part of the Millionaires Defence League.

All the top players have this expectation - all of the team. Barcelona are doing the same **** to Yamal. Vieira played as much football as Rice in 2002 and Wenger told him to do one. Haaland was begging for time off mid-way last season. This is the reality - get over it.

Acting like Saka is the first player to lose form and/or pace is more nonsense mollycoddling. When he retires - I'm sure you babies are going to cry about that too.

 

[A_G]

 

[Batman]

Interesting that this actually talented ex footballer rates Rice but fat guys on social media who get out of breath walking stairs don't.

 

[Taylor Gang Gunners]

He’s pushing through the pain barrier without doubt. I’m very much Arsenal over everything. I want Mexico to beat England. Bring our boys home we have a league to retain.

 

[EmeryCouldnt]

Point of a good manager is they can rotate and still win games. You don't need Rice in every single game

This is dumb. Nearly every good manager needs their best players to win the league. The few that have won without are outliers. Maybe it can be argued that SAF was able to do it, but I’d argue that the refs were his best players. Wenger couldn’t, Pep couldn’t…

There is a reason you spend 100+ million on a player like Rice. If you could do it without him, you wouldn’t pay that.

Sure, maybe it can be done without your best players… but even with your best players there is no guarantee.

 

[The Ducking Duck]

This is dumb. Nearly every good manager needs their best players to win the league. The few that have won without are outliers. Maybe it can be argued that SAF was able to do it, but I’d argue that the refs were his best players. Wenger couldn’t, Pep couldn’t…

There is a reason you spend 100+ million on a player like Rice. If you could do it without him, you wouldn’t pay that.

Sure, maybe it can be done without your best players… but even with your best players there is no guarantee.

Read the post again ffs. "(E)very single game".

 

[jones]

Never took you to be a part of the Millionaires Defence League.

All the top players have this expectation - all of the team. Barcelona are doing the same **** to Yamal. Vieira played as much football as Rice in 2002 and Wenger told him to do one. Haaland was begging for time off mid-way last season. This is the reality - get over it.

Acting like Saka is the first player to lose form and/or pace is more nonsense mollycoddling. When he retires - I'm sure you babies are going to cry about that too.

Nothing to do with mollycoddling, just common sense to prolong your players careers and usefulness. Wenger had Vieira playing every game because his backups were signed from German non-league sides.

 

[jones]

This is dumb. Nearly every good manager needs their best players to win the league. The few that have won without are outliers. Maybe it can be argued that SAF was able to do it, but I’d argue that the refs were his best players. Wenger couldn’t, Pep couldn’t…

There is a reason you spend 100+ million on a player like Rice. If you could do it without him, you wouldn’t pay that.

Sure, maybe it can be done without your best players… but even with your best players there is no guarantee.

State of this post lol.

 

[outlawz]

Nothing to do with mollycoddling, just common sense to prolong your players careers and usefulness. Wenger had Vieira playing every game because his backups were signed from German non-league sides.

No - in 02/03 our CM backups were Parlour and Edu. Parlour in particular came off a great 01/02 campaign scoring in the FA Cup final and we then bought Gilberto in the summer and Wenger still refused to rest Vieira.

There is always a core of players who play every game, unless it's a dead rubber. This has been true for as long as I've followed football.

The Zubi argument I can get behind as he was woefully out of form, and MLS should have played sooner, but we needed Rice in every PL and CL game.

The only games I wouldn't have started him and was at odds with Arteta were the CC Cup semis and final. We should have just played the backups throughout. It's not a trophy worth risking your players for.

 

[lomekian]

God just dreaming of that as a 3....oof!

 

[HattoriHanzo]

They aren't but you'd rather play them selectively when the drop in quality is less punishing than be forced to play them every game for months because Rice's hamstring exploded.

@jones is right, it's part of managing a team. You simply cannot both argue there were no alternatives to playing Rice and Zubimendi every game when MLS randomly came in at the very tail end of the season and replaced one of them, including in the most important game Arsenal has played in 20 years.

It's a flaw of Arteta, it just is.

Imagine that you're Arsenal manager, you have finished last 3 seasons the 2nd, and you're under strong pressure to finally win the title.
Here are Rice's minutes last season.

Declan Rice - Stats 25/26

Find me a game in which you wouldn't start with fit Rice or where you would substitute him earlier.
Last game we won comfortably was against Sp**s, the 22nd of February.
After that match we won comfortably only against Fulham, when Rice was substituted after 64 minutes.

 

[BigPoppaPump]

He just needs to man up, stop whining about playing through injuries everyone does it.

 

[EmeryCouldnt]

Read the post again ffs. "(E)very single game".

State of this post lol.

Sure you can’t play players every single game with our schedule. But the way rice is looking right now, he’s going to need to rest a lot next season, not just a game here and there.

Arteta definitely should have used Nørgaard way more.

 

[2Smokeyy]

@A_G they got him: