Date: 28th March 2020 at 4:13pm
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Arsenal must make a move on Declan Rice this summer, according to Paul Merson.

The former Gunners man says his old side are ‘crying out’ for a defensive midfielder and believes Rice is the solution.

The West Ham midfielder has been in impressive form this campaign and has attracted admirers from across the Premier League.

Both Manchester United and Manchester City have been heavily linked with Rice in the past and recent reports claim Chelsea are interested in the 21-year-old, with Frank Lampard on the hunt for a deep-lying midfielder.

Declan Rice is reportedly in high demand

‘Chelsea have been linked with him, but I don’t know why Arsenal aren’t looking at Declan Rice,’ Merson told Sky Sports.

‘Arsenal are crying out for a holding midfield player. They don’t need a midfielder who’s going to be on the edge of the opposition box, they need a disciplined defensive midfielder, who is going to sit in front of the back four and organise the side; one who, when he gets the ball, gives it simple with 10-yard passes.

‘When you look back at the likes of Roy Keane later in his career and Claude Makelele, they were the best because they never got involved. They just did the simple things.

‘It’s so hard to be playing in a football match, playing five or 10-yard passes. Before you know it your mind is telling you to get involved and play 60-yard passes. You want to be involved and start spraying the ball about the pitch, but that’s where the great defensive midfielders just get it and keep it so simple.

‘People often say Makelele never scored but that wasn’t his job. It wasn’t Keane’s job either. Their job was to protect the back four and – I’m not going to say give the ball to better players because I don’t agree with that, they were as talented players as the ones going forward – but their job was such an art.

Mikel Arteta expected to be busy in the transfer market this summer

Merson added: ‘It’s such a hard job and that’s why I can’t believe Arsenal aren’t going in for a player like Rice.

‘A player like Rice can allow the attacking players to flourish and it gives the central defenders the chance to be better than what they are. I don’t care who you are in football, Paolo Maldini, Franco Baresi, Alessandro Costacurta and even a Virgil van Dijk, if you’ve got people running at you left, right and centre every minute, they are going to go past you on occasions.

‘That’s where good protection in front of the back four comes into it and every team needs it. There are not too many world-class centre-backs in the world so that makes the defensive midfield position all the more important.

‘For me, a good holding midfielder is priceless. Arsenal haven’t really had a disciplined defensive midfielder since Gilberto Silva. Everyone talks about the club never really replacing Patrick Vieira, and of course, but they never replaced Gilberto either.

‘There are players in the current team that are meant to do that job but they don’t have the discipline to do it, and that needs addressing.’

 

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