Gary Neville has once again offered advice to Gareth Southgate on how to utilise Declan Rice, who is struggling to perform well for England at Euro 2024.
Rice is regarded as one of the best midfielders in Europe, but England is having difficulty getting the best out of him in the tournament. Considering his impressive form for Arsenal in the recently concluded season, he was expected to be a key player for the Three Lions in their quest for success.
However, after two matches, England’s prospects look in question and there are concerns that they might not even survive their first knockout game. This raises fears of another lost generation in English football, and Rice, in particular, cannot be proud of his performances so far.
Neville believes the midfielder has struggled because of the way he is being used by Southgate and said, as quoted by The Irish Independent:
“Mikel Arteta (Arsenal manager) moved Declan Rice out of that position (No.6) for the last 15 games of the season to bring in Jorginho and Thomas Partey, because he’s not that good at playing there.
“We don’t seem to have a player for that position. (Kobbie) Mainoo’s probably the one and Adam Wharton could do it. We have to resolve this problem and I’m not talking about Gareth in the next four days.”
Just Arsenal Opinion
Rice can do far better than he is doing now, and if England unlocks him at the competition, their results could improve instantly.
However, if they remain stubborn, they could be eliminated from the competition quicker than expected.
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Gary Neville is so Correct on this one. Southgate should have played Kobbie Mainoo as DM and Rice as central midfielder.
But really, I feel Chelsea’s Cole Palmer would complete this perfect trio just like an Odegaard-Rice-Thomas Partey.
Jude Bellingham seems not good for an Attacking midfield role. 😒
Rice is one of the best number 6 in world football. The average figures expected of a decent number 6 is, 5 interceptions per game. Rice manages 10 with England, which means he doing the average job of two defensive midfielders. The Stats don’t lie. So it just goes to show that Gary Neville doesn’t know what he is talking about. Rice along with Saka are two of England’s most consistent players this tournament.
Bellingham needs to be dropped back to play along side the isolated Rice, because Rice is having to do all the donkey work by mopping up for Bellingham. Trent and Folden who have unbalanced the team being placed in wrong positions.
Gary is a failed manager and failed punter that is just jealous of the Arsenal pair.
He makes me cringe listening to his rumbling nonsense.
There is more than one way to play the 6 role. It’s very disingenuous for Neville to act as though he is unaware of this, but then his views are entirely dependent on the point he is trying to make at the time. Rodri and Rice are as different as Shearer and Henry.
2 games in, and so far we’ve had one game where he was arguably England’s best player, and then one where he was on par with the rest in a sub-par performance.
Make your own mind up about whether that equates to him being a problem that needs fixing, or if Neville is just looking to justify his stolen loving with yet another agenda against an Arsenal player.