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Bet this gets downvoted to oblivion however…
I think rice is a very good player but also no where near the level people are rating him at on here. He’s excellent in certain aspects but he’s got a hell of a long way to go to be the transformative player he’s being labelled as. If anything I think he’ll stay really good, one of the best DMs in the world even but instead of raising his level to be the guy he’s hyped as we will actually just get one more mid to go with him and MØ that let’s rice stick to what he’s best at which is mopping up defensively.
some of the runs he’s making are exactly what we’ve needed - that Yaya Toure style player that can break lines with power instead of relying on finesse
he’s so far been better than I was expecting, he’s doing all the defensive work while showing up in key attacking areas as well.
He’s nothing like ya ya 😂. And he breaks lines less than partey does
I agree to an extent in that he definitely has weaknesses that don’t get talked about here. Out of possession he might be the best midfielder in the world, he’s extremely good at winning the ball and carrying.
The thing though is that for him to be the best #6 in the world he needs to improve his recieving and passing. Jon Mackenzie talked on the Potshot Podcast about how it really took Rodri 2 years to adopt and develop into the absolute world class #6 that he is today at Man City, and I think you’d have to assume that with Rice that’s the end goal as well. Rice doesn’t have the ability to control and run a game in the way Rodri does nor to be as progressive with his passing selection. There’s a chance he can develop that but that’s really the million dollar question, can he develop into that or do we simply need to add another midfielder that does that better and let Rice be what he currently is?
You’re right in that he needs more time to adapt to the 6.
You’re wrong in saying we should just make Rice a pure DM and let him mop up.
The lone 6 role takes a lot of adaptation.
Before we signed Rice the consensus is that he would play a lot of LCM this season because of adaptation and the fact that Partey is too good to bench if he’s fit. The problem is Partey is never fit.