Declan "Deccers" Rice: Page 36 - The Arsenal discussion community: One More in the Tolly

Declan "Deccers" Rice

GooneriC

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

Segway

GooneriC I think that would be impossible.

Doc

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.

JazzG

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

Sicario2 - Tier 1

POTS for me

goon

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

MistaT

goon — goal and post aside!

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

Clrnc

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

Claudius

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

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.

Gazza M

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.

Bring Back Kerrea Gilbert

Gazza M what specifically do you remember Vieira struggling with against those CL sides? I was young and don't remember the details!

RocktheCasbah

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.

SimplyThePest

Bring Back Kerrea Gilbert Wenger's lack of tactical pragmatism was our issue, not Vieira.

Gazza M

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

Qwiss

RocktheCasbah the whole system and approach changed though, Fabregas was just central to it. I've no doubt Wenger would have loved to keep Vieira around if he could.

Burnwinter

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.

Rohit

RocktheCasbah We were possibly the only top team in their own league playing a two man midfield in Europe. Football and athleticism in the sport has come a long way but Vieira was an absolute monster of the game even in Europe.

Mirth

SimplyThePest also it didn’t help Bergkamp couldn’t fly to half the away games

daredevil

Burnwinter

I remember all of them, from being knocked out by Borussia Moenchengladbach in the first round of the Uefa Cup, to the Double winners being knocked out by AIK Solna a year or two later. European nights are forever etched in my memory, because elimination meant waiting an entire year before we could potentially be back in the same position.

Big Willie

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.

SimplyThePest

Gazza M Bringing back some memories there!

Again, I'd still say that was on Wenger. Even Ferguson, who was an average tactician at the time realised that he needed to play three in central midfield and mostly on the break against sides like Deportivo and Valencia. They handled them much better than we did.

RocktheCasbah

Big Willie remember listening to the second of those Valencia ties on the radio - 2-1 up from the first leg (having blown a great chance for 3 towards the end), it all seemed nice and comfortable for 75 minutes. And then Carew scored. 🤬🤬🤬

Gazza M

Big Willie for sure, they were the progenitors of what's become known as control ball. English clubs didn't know what hit them at the time, least of all Wenger or our players. those geezers seemed to bend time and space at their whim

Big Willie

RocktheCasbah Big Willie remember listening to the second of those Valencia ties on the radio - 2-1 up from the first leg (having blown a great chance for 3 towards the end), it all seemed nice and comfortable for 75 minutes. And then Carew scored

I don't remember that chance to make it 3-1 but that comeback after going down to that Ayala goal then getting the second goal almost while we were still celebrating the first with that long range banger from Ray. That goal alone deserved a win and a place in the semis. That was the same year Leeds got to the semis right? What a chance it could have been.

goon

RocktheCasbah

That Valencia game was probably my first prolonged heart break. The type that gets you depressed for a week.

Remember me and my brother laughing at Carew prior to that because we thought he was a useless lump.

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