According to reports, Declan Rice’s long-awaited transfer from West Ham to Arsenal is close to being finalised, marking one of the biggest deals of the summer for the Gunners.
Arsenal has pursued Rice for several months, and it appears that the English midfielder will soon be officially announced as an Arsenal player.
This acquisition represents a significant boost for Arsenal, as they add another quality midfielder to their squad. Rice, who typically plays as part of a midfield duo in front of the defence at West Ham, is set to become one of the standout players for Arsenal.
However, an article in The Sun suggests that Rice may feature in a different role at the Emirates. The report indicates that he will be deployed to replace Granit Xhaka in the Arsenal team, taking up a more advanced position on the left side of the Gunners’ midfield.
Just Arsenal Opinion
Rice is a superb midfielder and a player we expect to adapt to any role in that middle.
Mikel Arteta already knows exactly how he intends to use the Englishman, so we expect him to put Rice in his best position on the team.
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Xhaka sold. Credit when it’s due to Edu, I think 25 million euros is excellent sum for a soon 31-year old midfielder. Good negotiating in this case.
DaJuhi
Couldn’t agree more. He held his value pretty well after all these years.
That would be a terrible idea. Why spend £100M on a brilliant defensive midfielder and then play him as an attacking one? We already have players that can do that better than Rice can.
I cannot entertain this article as being accurate because it would be pure insanity and not even Arteta is that ridiculous, surely?
Ben
I agree that would be a terrible idea.
1. Rice’s best work by far was playing DM.
2. If Rice could play B2B West Ham would have done so as they were needing goals last year.
3. Havertz better suited to replace Xhaka not Rice.
Why reinvent the wheel? If you need a B2B then buy one, don’t shift a great DM and hope it works out.
It’s never smart to play footballers out of position, and then wonder why results don’t go your way. Rice impressed Arsenal as a stand out DM. Why would anyone want to play him elsewhere, after investing £100 million on his defensive capabilities?
Rice can play anywhere from Defence to attack, however, how will that change the dynamic of the team?
Rice didn’t play B2B at West Ham because that is not the way Moyes has them set up. Defend, defend, defend and hit you on the break, defend the lead and hope his defence can hold out, until the opposition is so engaged with attack, then hit them on the break again!
He did play box to box – it’s been well documented that he changed from a sitting midfielder to a box to box midfielder a couple of years ago. He’s talked about it.
Patey,Rice,Odegaard.(First team)
Jorginho,Kai,ESR(Subs)
Team1 Rams
B.W Saliba G.M J.Kiwior
Patey Rice
Saka Odegaard G.Martinelli
G.Jesus
Team2
M.Turner
Tommi Timber J.Kiwior K.Tieney
Jorginho Zinchenko
R.Nelson Kai ESR
Trossard
This is what I am hoping for tbh – rice would be a far better replacement for xhaka than for partey. To my understanding, he has fantastic defensive instincts and the xhaka role will give him the freedom to move into areas to win the ball back quicker, whereas the partey role would force him to hold certain positions. He’s also athletic enough to get forward and support the attacks. I don’t think he’s an outstanding attacker (neither was xhaka), but he’s not bad either and overall, having him in that position should give the team more control over matches.
As mentioned before, I don’t think rice has the skill to play how partey does when we build from the back – he might make us more resilient, but if we’re less able to control the play, we’ll be forced into a lot more defensive situations, which is never desirable.
I hope that means partey will stay – I think rice and partey in midfield together could be really outstanding but if we have to replace partey as well, I don’t know who we could realistically get to replace him. I’d be confident tchouameni could do it, but that seems like a pipe dream. Could be the reasons for the links though, maybe we’re testing the waters to see if we can allow partey to leave. I struggle to think of anyone else – lavia maybe could become that good, but he looks a bit raw to me currently.
The Sun is wrong.
Rice will replace Partey, Havertz will replace Xhaka.