I think Arteta will always shift the midfield configuration from game to game but with Zubimendi coming in (assuming that happens) you have to expect Rice to continue playing left 8 a lot.
How true do you think the rumours are that Declan Rice favours potatoes and pasta over his namesake?
You know what you did bumping this thread.
Bastard bloody 
Maybe Decs can do a job upfront.
Was at error for the first goal but I didn’t get why he got subbed off unless he was injured. Beyond that I don’t think he was bad, in fact, whatever we created came from his side in the first half.
His corners are one of our biggest threats and beyond Merino, he’s the only other player we’ve got left that can crush the box.
I thought he was very poor and didn’t look physically right from the start. Maybe 25 minutes in he went to make this recovery run on AWB and made up no ground at all while AWB was dribbling. He looked like he did at the start of the season, huffing and puffing.
If Calafiori is going to push forward and we’ve got Trossard on the wing, Rice needs to be his physically dominant self for it to work. And he was miles off it.
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Back to the old performances then.
Shame because he looked better in recent games. Corners aside, that was a proper stinker from him.
That set-piece attempt for the game’s final kick summarised it.
£100m gets you Declan Rice it’s a sad state of affairs it costs that much money for a midfielder who just doesn’t really transform our midfield much.
All that promise he showed last season is irrelevant because he’s been decidedly average for most of the season.
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Yeah and the cheek of whatever he was trying to say to Gabriel after the whistle when he’d (Rice) just dropped a stinker himself.
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cut the crap.
we needed him, and needed him so much.
just face the fact that probably except Saka (a lot of assists through corners) and Partey, pretty much all our players have an off year, including Saliba and Odegaard.
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Saw that too. Cheeky cunt
Both can be true. It is a fact that the market is completely fucked.
City was willing to pay 90m+, we are not really overpaying.
If we did, maybe just a few mil.
That was the market price.
He didn’t say overpaying tbf. He said it’s sad what a 100m gets you in a midfielder these days.
Which is not wrong and can be said for many positions.
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A player like Rice in all honesty is a £65m player in today’s market. He only cost £105m cause he was West Ham’s most important player and the British tax.
A good player for sure, but not some world beater that will transform any top team’s midfield.
If we sold him tomorrow we wouldn’t get anywhere near £105m for him.
I like him though, despite the poor performances he’s been putting in lately.
I do think he could be our next captain too, especially if he can own that #8 role.
Odegaard is just lost on me, don’t see any leadership from him ever.
Look what I mean about the ball to him as well, slows the entire move and impacts his option to drive forward because the ball curves 2 yards back from where he’d really want it to take in his stride.
Happens all over the pitch atm.
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Hey if Liverpool have won things with Jordan Henderson in their midfield, we have the cockney MkII version.
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I thought Gabriel was raging and he was trying to pacify him a bit but obviously not 100%. and dont blame Gabriel for seething