Declan Rice has answered to “harsh” complaint from Graeme Souness through announcing that the Sky Sports pundit can’t have watched him a lot if he thinks that the England world does not do sufficient to be considered a most sensible midfielder.
Souness made his case through arguing that world-class midfielders will have to do 3 issues neatly: protect, be offering creativity and rating objectives. The former Liverpool midfielder stated Rice handiest has one standout high quality – his ball-winning talent – and he used to be subsidized up through Roy Keane prior to Manchester United beat West Ham within the 5th spherical of the FA Cup previous this month.
“It’s harsh,” Rice stated. “I think it’s harsh because Souness doesn’t watch West Ham every week. There’s loads of West Ham fans, 60,000 go every week, and see what I do. To say I’m only good at one out of three is harsh. But Souness was a top midfielder and when someone like him speaks you have to sometimes listen and take on board where you can improve if that’s true.”
Rice, who will start when England open their Euro 2024 qualifying campaign by facing Italy in Naples on Thursday, has always been eager to improve. He spoke in respectful terms about Keane. The former United captain coached Rice while the 24-year-old was part of the Republic of Ireland set-up.
“Roy as well, he’s said some glowing things about me in the past and sometimes some things I can improve as well,” Rice said. “You take it with a pinch of salt and try not to let it affect you.
Representing England offers Rice a chance to forget about West Ham’s relegation battle. He revealed that he has tried to deal with it by taking himself off social media.
“I try not to read too much,” he said. “I don’t really know about anything that’s going on in the world at the minute because I’ve come off all that social media stuff. I couldn’t tell you who’s playing. Someone really close to me said the other week I always look at other clubs in terms of fixtures and results and they just said we can only worry about ourselves.”
Rice, who is expected to leave West Ham this summer, understands criticism of his performances this season. “It’s about these two fixtures for England and when I get back to West Ham it’s about playing the best I can to get us out of the relegation battle and win the Europa Conference League,” he stated.
“My club performances are probably getting looked at more because of where we are in the league. Being captain my performances are scrutinized more, which I can take on the chin. There probably have been some games recently where I probably haven’t been at my best but there have been other games where I have been at my best.”
The Italy midfielder, Marco Verratti, tipped Rice to succeed in the highest. “I really like him,” Verratti stated. “He supplies nice stability to the staff and has superb bodily attributes. I’m certain he will finally end up at a most sensible aspect.”