Morning all.
I have to say I enjoyed Declan Rice’s performance against Monaco on Wednesday evening. I’ve been quite surprised by the amount of comment I see online (I know, I know) about how he can’t play as a 6 and how he doesn’t have the passing range to play that role the way we need to. I honestly don’t understand where it comes from – perhaps the bleating of opposition fans has bled over somehow.
I thought he was excellent against Monaco. His passing was crisp and varied, he handled possession in tight areas well, he was able to deal with opposition pressure and get the ball forward (whether via passes or carrying the ball himself), and there were some long passes that caught the eye too. For me, this is 100% his best position, and as I’ve said previously, it’s where I’d like to see him play more often than not for us going forward.
I will acknowledge that his form this season hasn’t been quite where you’d like it to be, but I don’t think he’s alone in that. Not to mention I think he’s feeling the effects of an ongoing injury sustained after a summer where he ran himself ragged for England, after doing the same for Arsenal. The fact he was taken off after 64 minutes tells you that he is being managed in terms of his fitness, and I suspect that’s something we’re going to see more of as the season goes on.
Not just with Rice, but others too. We have some 60 minutes players right now, so it’s going to be fascinating to see how Mikel Arteta deals with those aches and strains. For example, Jurrien Timber’s 30 minutes on Wednesday might allow him to start against Everton on Saturday. While I think Thomas Partey has done a good job at right-back for the most part, he doesn’t play that role like Timber or Ben White and I think that has an impact on our right hand side. That’s not a criticism, just a reality we have to deal with when he is asked to play there.
I also think the Partey/Timber dynamic has knock-on effects for midfield. They are the two options we have at right-back for the foreseeable future as we don’t expect White to be back until well into the new year. Ideally, you don’t want to play the two of them at the same time. Not simply because I don’t really like the balance of Partey right and Timber left, but it leaves you without an alternative should one pick up a problem.
Hopefully the emergence of Myles Lewis-Skelly as a credible left-back option solves some of that puzzle. His impressive performance in midweek ought to give Arteta the confidence to play him in the Premier League if he’s needed, thus allowing a more natural right-back in Timber to start when he can, or the Dutchman to be rested if needed while Partey plays in that position.
But, if we have to ‘restrict’ Partey because of our defensive needs, it means that either Rice or Jorginho are going to be the ones to anchor the midfield for the most part. We got our first glimpse of the Rice, Merino, Odegaard set-up against Monaco, and I think it worked quite well. It gave us a bit more balance towards the left hand side of our attack, and in the first half in particular it was pretty fluid as we dominated the game and created lots of goalscoring chances. The dynamic shifted after the break, of course, and Rice’s substitution means the sample size on that trio remains pretty small, but I’m keen to see it more often after which we can make a more informed assessment of how it functions.
Ultimately, the ages and contractual situations of both Partey and Jorginho mean that Rice is the future when it comes to the 6, and I think the sooner we bed him in there on a consistent basis, the better it’ll be in the longer-term. I think both of those senior players will go next summer, one of the tasks will be to find someone who can deputise/cover for Rice (if there isn’t an internal solution perhaps), but until then I think we should start seeing him in the position we 100% signed him to play in. His all-round ability means he’s good enough to do the job to high level elsewhere, I just think the team would be better balanced with him deeper.
That, of course, could lead to yet another conversation about the ‘left 8’ but that’s one for another day! We’ll have coverage from Arteta’s press conference this afternoon on Arseblog News, and an Everton preview podcast for you on Patreon later on, for now though, I’ll leave it there.
Have a great Friday.
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