As good as Rice has been, and he's been really good, he was never going to be able to play like him and do the things he does which is why I found the suggestion that Rice playing in there with his "superior footballing brain" instead of Partey would allow us to become even better.
Maybe if we tweaked our whole midfield shape and style to suit a more direct style but if anything we've leaned into an even more patient, slower type buildup that puts us back in horseshoe of death territory. To avoid this we need someone who is able to regularly show for and receive the ball facing our own goal in CM and evading the pressing player all the while trying to either turn goalwards or passing it through the lines.
It's why, in my eyes at least, we seem to be getting pressed a lot harder and higher up the pitch than we were last season. Maybe it's the respect teams are showing us, but I reckon it's the opposite in that they aren't as worried about us shredding them if they do. As a result we end up passing it around the back aimlessly until we're boxed in and we have to end up going long anyways.
