Another one i thought we paid too much for , but damn he has raised our midfield and our game some levels. Just need to move Partey on and find a player with similar impact to Rice

    Maybe his best performance as an 8. Can see he is getting a lot more comfortable in the role now... Starting to see a lot more of his trademark ball carries, positioning and timing his runs into the box. You can tell he is loving it.

    So unlucky with that shot that hit the bar, would have been an unbelievable goal. You know how good he has been that nobody even mentions his price tag any more. Jamie Carragher compared it to Van Dijk and that is a good shout, he came in with a massive price tag and some thinking it was too much but within 6 months nobody talked about the transfer fee.

    Now playing higher up showing another side to his game. 10+ G/A this season already, think he could get to 10 goals as well which would be unreal for someone in

    Actually didn’t think he had his best game as an 8, goal aside. But he will definitely get goals in that role.

      goon — goal and post aside!

      That was a great shot, and worthy of a goal.

        Moyes said West Ham sold Rice on a cheap. Who is to disagree lol

          Clrnc hard to say what pricing should be of players. But if we look at the other players going for similar prices, he is by the most impactful. This is basically Joao Felix, Enzo, Coutinho, Grealish, Caicedo, Lukaku.

            DiabyKungFu Well then. The stars have aligned perfectly. If Deccers doesn't get a hat-trick at the Emirates against Porto in the CL Round of 16, then we'll know for a fact that he's a fraud. Time for him to prove himself.

            The fraudulence has been exposed.

              great learning experience for him. he'll need to learn different ways of imposing himself in CL games. i remember PV4 was similarly such an overwhelming force in league games, then would often get mugged by clever technical teams like Valencia and deportivo on European nights.

                Gazza M I remain convinced that, it was those European failures (which I suppose is what we have to call them), which led Wenger to replace Vieira with the far more technical Fabregas. And if course it nearly paid off in the very first post Vieira season.

                    RocktheCasbah You're thinking more of the "tiki-taka" drift round when Spain won Euro 2008 and so on. Fabregas being rushed through the ranks at Arsenal had a lot to do with Barcelona's technical ascendancy.

                    Guess he'll explain it but I assumed @Gazza M was referring to our European campaigns of the late 90s and early 00s, when we registered quite a few disappointing results given our quality. Can't say I recall too many of the matches but I remember our showings being average.

                        Bring Back Kerrea Gilbert I'd say it was mainly tempo, structure and technical ability. we were a high throttle team back then but didn't really have a lower gear, and the spanish teams were masters of the slow tempo which messed with our approach. also, they deployed dedicated number 10s which gave vieira a marking headache that he wasnt used to, as no-one in england was using 10s that way at the time. guys like pablo aimar and juan carlos valeron (who basically a spanish zizou-lite at the time) made his role in the team much harder. and in terms of structure, there was typically an extra body midfield which left vieira outnumbered. I remember thinking at the time that vieira was unstoppable, then after playing those teams thinking 'ah, there's levels to this shit'

                        the way Porto played us brought back those old memories of being pick pocketed in europe

                            Gazza M Fucking nightmares about getting beaten by Valencia and Deportivo in the early 2000s. Diego Tristan, Roy Makaay and Juan Valeron at Depor total controlballed us, and bastard John fucking Carew knocking us out two times in a couple of years, hated that fucker who seemed like he only ever showed up against us. The La Liga Drogba.