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Dismissing Rice as an ‘8 with no quality’ is not reasonable. He is a very strong 8; he’s just not perhaps ideal in his attacking contributions, though he is both underrated in this respect and offers significant compensation.
No, we need more than one quality 6 in the squad; at the very least, to go back to your prior terms, we need at least one ‘top quality 6’ and one ‘quality 6’.
Even Rice found our 6 role so physically demanding that he needed to come off for back spasms.
If one or both of those 6s can also play very well in our 8 role(s), that is surely helpful for the squad.
You just named three players who could play as 8s or 6s in our setup, to varying degrees.
Rice is not a quality 8 at the level we need that position to be im sorry. It’s not his instincts and it’s not his long term position. He has won MOTMs playing 6. He is a World class 6 and a good 8.
We need a top top class left 8
Yes I named players as profile examples, of players primarily as 8s who could also play 6 if needed. Which is what I said
It’s like you’re having a conversation with a figment of your imagination.
You keep trying to convince yourself that you’re talking with someone who has said repeatedly ‘Rice is an 8 not a 6’, so you keep trying to insist on how good Rice is as a 6, as if that’s news.
You also keep trying to pretend I’ve said something like, ‘Rice is the best possible left 8 for us,’ as though I’ve not directly addressed that.
I’ll try this again:
The difference between Rice and the three CMs you named is at most a matter of degree. All of them can play anywhere in our midfield. Rice is the best 6 of those four; Gundogan at his peak was probably the best 8. Rice is, however, the most underrated 8 of those four; he is closer to the others than you’re suggesting.
Despite your insistence on how good he is, you are selling him short-- which is why you keep vacillating between ‘Rice is not a quality 8’ or ‘Rice is really a 6 not an 8 at all’, ‘Rice can maybe play 8’, and ‘Rice is a good 8’.
Okay then I see where we disagree. I don’t think Rice is an 8 at the level of a Barella or Bellingham or Bernardo Silva or Gundogan.
I’m not selling him short wtf are u reading? He is a good 8 he’s not ELITE at that position. That’s what we need for where we are going.
Again Rice at the 8 is only a short term option because of what we have and it’s a moot point discussing that incessantly. He won’t play 8 long term. Hes our long term 6 and he’s our Partey replacement. Simple.