Country: England
Player:Rice
The best thing about Rice will be how he opens the side up to being much more tactically flexible.
Xhaka had a very good season for us at 8 but part of the reason he was moved there was cover for some of his limitations, mobility, tackling, pace etc. That did limit us somewhat tactically.
It worked well but with Rice you're not playing him there to ( partially) cover for weaknesses in his game and you always have the option of playing him as a 6 because his workrate, defensive positioning, tackling are top notch.
A lot of our poor performances this season have been when Xhaka and Partey got overwhelmed / swamped in the centre of the park. They were a great partnership usually but at times they got overrun / outcompeted physically. That's not happening with Rice in there.
I'm convinced a lot of the criticism Rice gets is aesthetics based, he looks awkward at times but he's a very effective player and he's not a limited player technically, he's basically everything you'd want in a modern CM and I think that's backed up buy us, Man Utd, Bayern etc being interested in him at a valuation of around £100m.
Maybe people think Arsenal, Man Utd, Chelsea are falling for the English hype, but Bayern certainly aren't.
Xhaka had a very good season for us at 8 but part of the reason he was moved there was cover for some of his limitations, mobility, tackling, pace etc. That did limit us somewhat tactically.
It worked well but with Rice you're not playing him there to ( partially) cover for weaknesses in his game and you always have the option of playing him as a 6 because his workrate, defensive positioning, tackling are top notch.
A lot of our poor performances this season have been when Xhaka and Partey got overwhelmed / swamped in the centre of the park. They were a great partnership usually but at times they got overrun / outcompeted physically. That's not happening with Rice in there.
I'm convinced a lot of the criticism Rice gets is aesthetics based, he looks awkward at times but he's a very effective player and he's not a limited player technically, he's basically everything you'd want in a modern CM and I think that's backed up buy us, Man Utd, Bayern etc being interested in him at a valuation of around £100m.
Maybe people think Arsenal, Man Utd, Chelsea are falling for the English hype, but Bayern certainly aren't.