England fans have admitted that James McClean was right with his comments about Declan Rice.
McClean, 35, ripped into Rice at half-time during the Three Lions’ bore draw with Denmark on Thursday (June 20) evening – pulling no punches, he slammed the Arsenal midfielder’s performance. The Wrexham man, who played with Rice for Ireland, was appearing on Irish channel RTE.
When asked about Rice’s performance, he said: “For a £100m player I want to see more than five-yard sideways and backwards passes.” Ahead of the game, McClean had claimed Rice was “overrated”.
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“James McClean was right all the time,” a fan conceded. While a second said: “Insane hating I have to respect it!”
“Spot on and if anyone disagrees, you live in a world of delusion,” a third agreed. And another added: “Yes, James. Next time call him a long Mark Noble.”
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England’s midfield has been the talking point so far this Euros, and speaking about his performance, Gary Neville told ITV: “Arteta moved Declan Rice out of that position for the last 15 games of the season because he’s not that good at playing there
“Today is the most nervous I’ve seen Declan Rice. I think he’s better moving up the pitch. Think about what Kroos and Rodri and Vitinha does for Portugal, these players who get the team playing…
“Every team that’s great has this type of player. We don’t have that, Mainoo maybe, Wharton? We have to resolve that problem. I’m talking England generally. We’ve never been able to get out from the back in moments of pressure.
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“When he goes to receive the ball deep with his back to play, I think he’s quite basic at that. I don’t think he’s as good as the other players who play that position.
“When he’s brilliant, he’s marauding forward, he’s up on top of the game, he’s aggressive. Most of his touches were in that high left channel. For some reason we don’t have that balance in midfield and it’s a massive problem.”