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Declan Rice: Balon D’ec

Yousif Arsenal

Was on Vinai's payroll; misses 4th place trophy 🏆

Blood on the Tracks

AG's best friend, role model and mentor.

Country: England

Player:Rice
I thought he was the best player on the pitch last night.

The amount of tackles and interceptions he made was crazy. He was all over the pitch.
 

El Duderino

That's, like, your opinion, man.
Moderator
I thought he was the best player on the pitch last night.

Karan Johar Wow GIF by Amazon miniTV
 

El Duderino

That's, like, your opinion, man.
Moderator
Or maybe Edu brought him as he was the best on the market for the position and you are talking rubbish. That's why he earns millions and you are a fish expert in your local chip shop

You do realize he's just mostly memeing about Edu, right?
 

El Duderino

That's, like, your opinion, man.
Moderator
Think you guys are expecting too much from Rice as far as thing he isn't stellar at.

Price tag works against him in that regard, yes, but his role here is to allow us to attack more and being a 7.5/10 player over the course of a season.

I prefer him as a 6 much more than as the left 8 and I hope that's how we play him going forward. Much like Kai in midfield, it can work but it's not his best position.
 

drippin

Obsessed with "Mature Trusted Members"

Country: Finland
Think you guys are expecting too much from Rice as far as thing he isn't stellar at.

Price tag works against him in that regard, yes, but his role here is to allow us to attack more and being a 7.5/10 player over the course of a season.

I prefer him as a 6 much more than as the left 8 and I hope that's how we play him going forward. Much like Kai in midfield, it can work but it's not his best position.
It looks like Rice & Havertz were the LCM cover players for a season to take Xhaka's minutes. Partey & Jorginho having injury problems meant Havertz played a lot more there at the beginning than was planned.

This season it looks like Merino is finally the proper Xhaka replacement. While Havertz & Nwaneri are the Ødegaard cover.

This kind of squad planning is necessary as there aren't enough funds to upgrade everything fast. Havertz will likely continue to get minutes in midfield after next summer, when Arsenal buys a top striker.

That's why I said that 65 million pounds is not a huge fee for a title challenging level rotational player who can play CF & AMF.
 

Dokaka

Gunner come out of the closet any day now…
Think you guys are expecting too much from Rice as far as thing he isn't stellar at.

Price tag works against him in that regard, yes, but his role here is to allow us to attack more and being a 7.5/10 player over the course of a season.

People generally just don't value defenders for some reason, despite the massive focus on that aspect of the game from top managers around the world. A-M spent years crying out for a midfield anchor and now they're moaning because he isn't the type of player they wanted that anchor to replace in the first place. Can't please some people.

The exception is CBs for some reason, a position where A-M tends to throw all the "bad footballer" arguments out of the window because "CBs main job is to defend" etc, ignoring that modern CBs spend an incredible amount of time actually progressing the ball just like midfielders do.

Dec's impact on your defensive ability is obvious, both statistically and when watching games, but there's now a somewhat predictable turn happening on here where people are hyper-focusing on what he isn't instead of valuing what he brings, despite him being a pivotal player in your best league season in decades.

He's a world class defender who needs help progressing the ball. The fact he isn't both a world class defender and an elite playmaker has somehow made him a target, despite the fact that if he was both of those things he'd be in contention as the literal GOAT.
 

Blood on the Tracks

AG's best friend, role model and mentor.

Country: England

Player:Rice
People generally just don't value defenders for some reason, despite the massive focus on that aspect of the game from top managers around the world. A-M spent years crying out for a midfield anchor and now they're moaning because he isn't the type of player they wanted that anchor to replace in the first place. Can't please some people.

The exception is CBs for some reason, a position where A-M tends to throw all the "bad footballer" arguments out of the window because "CBs main job is to defend" etc, ignoring that modern CBs spend an incredible amount of time actually progressing the ball just like midfielders do.

Dec's impact on your defensive ability is obvious, both statistically and when watching games, but there's now a somewhat predictable turn happening on here where people are hyper-focusing on what he isn't instead of valuing what he brings, despite him being a pivotal player in your best league season in decades.

He's a world class defender who needs help progressing the ball. The fact he isn't both a world class defender and an elite playmaker has somehow made him a target, despite the fact that if he was both of those things he'd be in contention as the literal GOAT.

Even for someone like Saliba the highlight reel stuff is what many focus on, like a great last ditch tackle. Don't get me wrong it's great he's got that in his locker but it's not what makes him a great CB, if anything he or someone else had made a mistake to put him in that position to need to make a last gasp tackle.

What makes Saliba so good is his reading of the game and positioning so 9 times out of 10 it never gets to needing to make a recovery tackle. That doesn't get focused on though because it's boring and no-one wants to watch it clipped up on Youtube.

Same with Rice, his reading of the game, positioning and awareness of danger means that 90% of the great stuff he does, no-one even notices or cares about because it's boring and you don't even get to the point of being in danger because he's snuffed it out before it gets to that point.
 

Maybe

You're wrong, no?
People generally just don't value defenders for some reason, despite the massive focus on that aspect of the game from top managers around the world. A-M spent years crying out for a midfield anchor and now they're moaning because he isn't the type of player they wanted that anchor to replace in the first place. Can't please some people.

The exception is CBs for some reason, a position where A-M tends to throw all the "bad footballer" arguments out of the window because "CBs main job is to defend" etc, ignoring that modern CBs spend an incredible amount of time actually progressing the ball just like midfielders do.

Dec's impact on your defensive ability is obvious, both statistically and when watching games, but there's now a somewhat predictable turn happening on here where people are hyper-focusing on what he isn't instead of valuing what he brings, despite him being a pivotal player in your best league season in decades.

He's a world class defender who needs help progressing the ball. The fact he isn't both a world class defender and an elite playmaker has somehow made him a target, despite the fact that if he was both of those things he'd be in contention as the literal GOAT.
Part of it comes from the fact that the squad is bloated with defenders to the point nobody cares. I was laughing at myself yesterday when Merino made a perfect tackle and I couldn't have cared less.

That's why I'm also surprised when people still get wet seeing Martinelli playing like a LB while the team is desperate for a baller. Once we have a better balance, people will appreciate Rice more and he can focus on what he's best at and leave the rest to others
 

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