I think there's a few directions to push our midfield, and I'm fascinated where we head.
Mac Allister has more of an offensive mindset to him than Xhaka or Rice, and it doesn't come with a massive loss of defensive support. But I'm not sold there's another level to him, so I'm left thinking he only makes sense if we want to replace Xhaka with a younger player to better fit the squad profile. Getting younger may have been an initiative a year or two back but we no longer need to make those moves.
My bet is Xhaka retains his starting role next year and then we move on as he may be exposed in high level CL games. His current contract runs till summer '24 but there's talks of an one year extension (to '25).
Rice seems a better fit to me in that he seems better suited for CL games. His ball recovery is massive as he covers a huge amount of the pitch, albeit aided by his position/role when compared to Xhaka/Mac Allister. But it's how calm he is on the ball that makes me think he's a better fit than Mac Allister.
