West Ham must be looking at these transfer rumours thinking if a five-and-a-half-year contract isn’t going to shut people up, nothing will.
Declan Rice’s star shines brighter and brighter. Every weekend he takes to the pitch, the interest in him increases and, actually, he’s already showing that his career can take him way beyond the idea that playing for England would be a big break for him.
Turning just 20 years of age today, Rice already has a number of big clubs looking at him but the idea that Liverpool should sign him split the panel on The Football Spin.
He’s a top player who’s going to get better. He’s composed, he’s smart, he’s extremely athletic and he’s also versatile having started his senior career out as a centre half – something Liverpool could’ve done with recently in the absence of Gomez and Lovren and Matip.
“I think he has the potential to be an upgrade in that holding midfield position,” Dion Fanning made a strong case for the London-born youngster.
“They have a lot of energetic midfielders but, apart from Fabinho, they don’t have a real natural player in that position.
“Jordan Henderson has converted to that position and I don’t think it’s his strongest position.”
But Melissa Reddy explained that Liverpool wouldn’t panic-buy to cover at centre half for a couple of games before going on to say that Rice is missing something to play at midfield for the league leaders.
“Liverpool won’t go into the market to make a move now because it would be a move to try to buy somebody for one game or two and Fabinho acquitted himself very well at centre half – five clearances, two blocks, he won all his aerial duels.
“What they’ll do now is do a lot of work on who they want in the summer.
The thing that lets Rice down
“I would say the one thing that probably lets [Rice] down to play as the anchor in this current Liverpool team is his passing.
“I think everything else – his reading of the game, his tackling, his ability in the air – is all really good but Liverpool need their number 6 to be able to set the tempo, to really be their metronome and have the ability to switch the play.
“I think he’s young enough for all those elements of his game to improve obviously.”
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The idea that Rice couldn’t play as the anchor in Liverpool’s midfield because of his passing is strange when you consider that Jordan Henderson is the club captain.
Henderson might well be under pressure from Fabinho this year – even though he’s not in the same league – but he has still started 11 games thus far and has been used in a further eight. Klopp still prefers Henderson in the big games – he trusts having him in the engine room for the like of the Champions League semi-final and final, the must-win clash against Napoli, away to Man City. Klopp goes for energy and steel in those games and Henderson is the poster boy for the dogs who are sent in to get the job done – all the while maintaining the threat of the front three.
Listen, Henderson isn’t a bad player. He’s physically imposing, he’s relentless and he has a decent right foot. Henderson’s only problem is that he won’t use it. He doesn’t look up, he doesn’t want to try anything special and he is so afraid of being caught in possession that most of his passes go first-time back to Lovren, like they did against City in a pattern that Pep Guardiola so obviously wanted. He’s an anchor alright and he’s tough but he is so far away from a playmaker that it’s therefore wrong to cite passing as a reason Declan Rice couldn’t play in that same position for Liverpool.
The clip from the World Cup of Henderson constantly ballooning balls away for England is what happens when you instruct him to come out with the ball and find the attackers. He prefers reduced, risk-adverse football and he’s good at that. But he’s not a heartbeat and he’s certainly not doing anything Declan Rice can’t do.
Liverpool might not need Declan Rice but he’s definitely an upgrade on what’s already there.
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