6 or 8? Rice spoke with such enthusiasm post match about how Arsenal's been opening up his attacking potential that I'd be reluctant to pull him back.
You've gotta work with how a player is seeing himself. I could see Rice dropping back to play 6 in his later career. Meanwhile both Rice and Øde are carrying a heavy box-to-box workload, and it's the latter we most want to liberate from that.
This "Partey replacement" is the midfielder we need in the summer. Someone durable and accountable, with elite game reading and passing, the player doesn't need to be gung-ho or a "destroyer" in my opinion.
