Well we know who @SRCJJ was watching in the stadium 
Agreed. I felt it was noticeable today. Couple of occasions where won possession back and had a good opening to attack but he hesitated going for a more complex forward pass and went for a safer, less threatening option.
Biggest issue for me is he’s been defensively poor this season, at least it feels like it.
CB’s been more exposed, Rice looked clumsy tracking back a few times. At least people are starting to talk about it now, he’s had a long enough grace period this season now.
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now looks more like a human than a robot.
the Euro could be the reason his performance level is down.
That, Odegaard missing, Calafiori taking up some of his spaces, new partners every week.
Plenty of reasons but he has to solve them and perform. We paid 105m and saw the quality he has last season.
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Wouldn’t say poor personally but I have highlighted before as well that he has dropped off out of possession. And it feels noticeable because he used to be outstanding in this department.
In certain games Partey has been a bigger help which depending on how you feel about Partey, that’s not a good reflection on Dec.
Midfield been getting ran through all season
The guy has played a shit ton of games and continues to do so, form dipping is natural even more so with no Odegaard to initiate and maintain press in front.
Hopefully Merino getting up to speed will give him another player that can take some of the burden but yeah Rice is another player where I fear for his longevity
All these hard yards take their toll and he barely gets summers off
Yeah, I’ve been distinctly underwhelmed by his performances so far.
He’s been one of our consistent performers IMO. Whilst others have dipped in form, I feel Rice has maintained a high level.
I think Rice is a tidy player, but I haven’t been very impressed with him for a while now.
Rice’s passing is extremely mediocre, and that is my biggest criticism of his.
If he is supposed to play ahead of Partey, then he has to do more than just serviceable sideways passing.
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Much of this is down to overload tbh. Lets not forget how good he was in the 8 last season. His role for both club and country is very taxing. Worked his arse off for England in the summer without a lot of support in midfield and that was after a long title challenging season. There’s more asked of him than most players for sure even midfielders. Not sure he’s actually fresh right now. No chance he would flag it up himself though.
He’s not yet at the level of last season tbh, been a noticeable drop.
Hasn’t been so huge but yeah you can tell he’s had a long summer.
just a matter of choice…
sure Xhaka is a much better passer, but we have proper defense in midfield in return when Rice is there.
His best performance of the season. Great assist for the goal and handed another great ball to Merino a little bit earlier.
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He was great today! Back to his best.
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Was brilliant today, actually passed the ball forward and ‘carried the ball’ like he’s supposed to.
He was playing in the #6 today, right?
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Yeah, he took Partey’s liberties but you could see him up high the pitch too.
Won the ball in some dangerous areas in final third near the end where we could and should have done better.
I loved seeing him drive the ball forward, carry it the extra few yards and disorient the opposition.
Those little progressions make all the difference. Opens the pitch up.
His strength on the ball was excellent too. This is the £100m Rice we signed. He is the man who has to stand up and be different when it matters. Rate the performance today when we were missing so many of our key players
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Yeah definitely a much much improved performance. Much more in line with what we saw last season