lorddulaarsenal add the recovery runs to that. He’s the best bloodhound we’ve had in midfield for ages.
Declan "Deccers" Rice
12 days later
watching this lad practically walk through the Bournemouth midfield will present a tactical quandary for Mikel. He is the more assured #6 vs Partey but he delays our transition out of defence. I would prefer we take some risks and let this lad play the left #8.
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his conservatism in deep positions is an issue because of how we play. partey draws one or two guys, but isn't afraid to drop the shoulder or play a quick one-two to get us moving forward. rice had plenty of moments against bournmouth where it would've made a difference if he was a bit braver with his dribbling or pass selection. you could see he was comfortable doing it only when we were a few goals up. it wouldn't be as much of an issue if:
a) we had a simpler, direct style that isn't as heavy on building from the back
or
b) we had a proper left 8 that rice could pick out to do the more adventurous, forward-thinking stuff
Rice should be our 8.
Just needs to add a bit of offensive awareness and reorientation, and he’s 2.0.
banduan He is the more assured #6 vs Partey but he delays our transition out of defence. I would prefer we take some risks and let this lad play the left #8.
Sometimes you need someone to be boring there, at time last season we got caught out trying to be too risky with our passing. Once we have a two goal lead we should be making the game as boring as possible and then choosing our moments.
Rice may lack Partey's passing ability but is far better defensively imo. In tougher games we need to play with both but in other games I'd rather we stuck with Rice there.
You can start Rice as an 8, get your 2 goal lead then tell him to be more conservative if you want.
Watching the game this weekend I couldn't help but think what an incredible player Rice would be if he could pass as progressively as Partey or have the same sort of confidence to receive possession under pressure. That player would be hands down the best midfielder in the world and then it hit me - Vieira was that player. How lucky were we having that man here in his peak? What a fucking player he was.
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JazzG the problem is the rest of our passing game is pretty bland. in order for us to build an attack, someone has to take a risk with their passing when we're building from the back.
we used to have two adventurous passers at the back, in zinchenko and partey. now we still have two, but one of them is our GK.
I'd like to see what a raya, zinchenko, partey axis could conjure up
JazzG Rice may lack Partey's passing ability but is far better defensively imo. In tougher games we need to play with both but in other games I'd rather we stuck with Rice there.
I think that's what we're gearing for, Rice as the #6 for weaker teams cos it's great to have a #6/#8 hybrid when you're playing against a team parking the bus, and absolutely fantastic when against a team naively atatcking.
TambourineMan When I first read this it made me go "WHAT?", I was thinking about this Vieira lol.
True leader. More adversity the more this guy played well. One of the few actual leaders we have.
he did step up his intensity when the going got tough. hopefully he'll come to realise he's good enough to step up and lead this team all the time. still feels like he plays with a bit of deference rather than letting his nuts hang
Too safe with the ball at the moment, needs to start running with ball and disrupting our predictable patterns.
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Personally will be surprised if we see a side that includes Partey, Zinchenko and Rice, i.e. Rice at 8 and Zinchenko inverting. What makes you guys think he's suddenly going to be adventurous and completely different with progressive/short passing, shooting and press resistance demands? I think you have to gift that position to an attacking midfielder the way this team tends to setup. So one of Fabio, Kai, or Emile. Hopefully Patino makes the leap too.
I know there's this perception of Rice being naturally more conservative on the ball (and he probably does take fewer risks than Partey) but I've always disagreed with the notion that he can't be progressive. I think that's informed by how he's been deployed by West Ham and England but I feel I've seen enough from him over the years to believe he has it in his locker, he just needs to be invited to bring it out more.
I did think he was disappointing for much of last night however. Not his best performance (maybe his worst?).
I would love to see the stats on how much time Zinchenko spends in the middle versus last season, because it certainly looks like he's gone from a LB who inverts, to a CM who covers the left flank. It looks to me that he supports Rice in the build up far more than he ever supported Partey and we've lost his unpredictability because of his lack of under and over lapping down the left flank.
Rice has improved his passing between the lines, particularly in finding Odegaard in the half spaces, but it's taking a while for that channel to develop. Additionally, he misses countless opportunities to progress play through the centre due to a lack of awareness, bravery and agility.
Don Pacifico he was plenty progressive at West Ham ham for the second half of last season. Plenty of bursting runs through the middle to start moves for them. He's a pretty good transition player too. He's playing a much more conservative role for us. And we might get away with it if we weren't also being so conservative with the midfielders ahead of him and the full backs. When you look at the 2 full backs being either an extra centre half or a someone who pulls into the middle and doesn't get forward much it means we lack numbers and width going forward if the 2 centre/attacking mids aren't making good runs and playing progressively. Odegaard usually plays like this and we've seen moments of it from ESR and Vieira but Havertz isn't doing it and very often Vieira gets dragged into the safe passing too. Havertz needs to take a squad role and one of ESR or Vieira needs to take the first team place and really play regularly on the front foot. I'd go for Smith-Rowe, he speeds up our attacking play and makes the sort of off the ball runs we need. His sharp one two play and quick one touch progressive passing is exactly what defenders don't want to deal with and it'd stop our slow return to the horseshoe of misery.