Richard Keys has slammed Declan Rice by meting out a brutal nickname to the Arsenal midfielder.
Rice performed the total 90 minutes of the Gunners’ woeful 2-1 defeat at Fulham on New Year’s Eve. It was one of many Englishman’s much less efficient video games this season, with Arsenal failing to create possibilities and continuously being countered by their London rivals.
The £105million summer season signing has been one of many transfers of the season regardless of an unspectacular final two video games, throughout which he conceded a penalty to former membership West Ham. But beIN SPORTS presenter Keys believes he’s a poor match with the present Arsenal workforce.
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Keys began his weblog off by saying: “I’m a huge fan of Declan Rice. I think he’s a Rolls-Royce. I said when Arsenal signed him that he was the best piece of business any club had done in that window. He’s class. But he’s also wasted playing for Arsenal right now.”
He added: “What is the purpose of paying £110m for a participant solely to get him to tippy-tappy about in midfield doing what a bang extraordinary jobber may do?
“All he did for 90 minutes at Craven Cottage was drop between his centre-backs, choose up a sideways cross from them – knock it into Odegaard – get it again – knock it sideways or again once more, earlier than repeating the method time and time once more. Why?
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“Rice didn’t do anything to hurt Fulham. Nothing. Not one raking pass. Not one crunching challenge. Not one shot at goal. Nothing. So what’s the point of him? He’s become Declan Nice.”
And additional including: “It’s a travesty. I know why he does it – because he plays in a ‘nice’ team for a ‘nice’ manager, who played ‘nice’ football himself. And ‘nice’ can be very easy on the eye.”
It seems a few of Keys’ private antipathy in the direction of the Gunners has clouded his judgement in the direction of the midfielder’s performances this season. Arsenal, after a poor run of type, nonetheless have the second finest defensive file within the Premier League this season, with a lot of that being right down to Rice’s dominance in the course of the park.
(Image: AFP through Getty Images)
The 24-year-old’s fixed hounding of opposition gamers and inch-perfect tackling permits Mikel Arteta’s aspect to defend counters way more successfully, leading to them being prime of the league at Christmas. Rice and his Arsenal team-mates nonetheless want some high quality tuning by Arteta within the type of faster build-up play and never permitting their opposition sufficient time to retreat again to the consolation of their very own penalty field.
Yet Keys’ judgement that Rice is “coasting” proper now couldn’t be any additional than the reality. The participant left West Ham to be a part of a system the place he can contribute in additional methods than sprinting round like a headless rooster and being concerned in all the things.
Contrary to the disgraced former Sky Sports presenter’s “nice-guy” criticism of Rice, the participant will, and already has, taken big steps tactically and technically this season. It is now as much as Arteta to make the subsequent tactical adaptation along with his aspect, having efficiently achieved so quite a few occasions already in his younger administration profession.