Declan "Deccers" Rice: Page 45 - The Arsenal discussion community: One More in the Tolly

Declan "Deccers" Rice

Gazza M

he's played in this role for 4 months. give him
a full preseason to really sink his teeth into and im sure he'll adapt and grow into it more fully

Burnwinter

Coombs I'm sort of saying that above, yeah … to me it's not ideal (whether it's Partey, Rice, Xhaka or Parlour) having guys who are low percentage taking those chances on and hoping for a skittering worldie into the corner.

It's a far cry from having Ødegaard lining them up—he has the technique to place a shot beyond the keeper from that distance. At least Rice is keeping most of his shots down though, it's frustrating when a promising series of attacks is snuffed out by a visit to Row Z.

Clrnc

Interesting

Burnwinter

Clrnc Just read the original: https://archive.md/1D9cq

It's one of the more detailed exposés of our tactical logic and emphasis behind the scenes. Lots on our counter-press, where on the pitch Rice is expected to take up positions and make runs, what terms Arteta uses to describe his objectives, and so on. Rice's capacity to remember specific incidents in the interview is also impressive.

CPM

Got to love Dec, what a great character. We have a team full of warriors.

Burnwinter

CPM Reading that interview I was struck (as I quite often am since Wenger once mentioned specifically recruiting for high intelligence) how smart elite footballers need to be. "Technique" is becoming a fully fledged science.

MistaT

RocktheCasbah

MistaT maybe we should loan him back to West Ham for the last game of the season.

Burnwinter

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.

Coombs

Rice will always be important covering the defense. He'll still be the screen even if he runs beyond every now and again. Odegaard +1 are more than capable of covering when he does. Need another b2b 6/8 with different primary attributes, and who isn't a totally liability defending. We have what we need if we want to play an attacking 8 ahead of Rice.

Burnwinter

Coombs Exactly. His defensive instincts and commitment are why he needs to stay as an 8 for now, I reckon. That way we defend well from the front, don't have passengers and don't get into a situation where our 6 is expected to provide all the cover.

Qwiss

Burnwinter I'm thinking both Zubimendi and Bruno G can play both 6 and 8. Signing either would give us real flexibility in midfield. For instance if you wanted to rest or were missing Odegaard putting Jorinho in at 6 with Rice and Bruno/Zubi ahead of him still looks very strong for a big game. Or if you are playing against a low block sort of team Rice, Zubi/Bruno plus ESR is still a very strong midfield. Thats the sort of options you want to challenge on all fronts next season.

Clrnc

People who don't watch us often thinks very differently from most of us who watch him week in week out

Don Pacifico

Clrnc weird.

Qwiss

Clrnc he's spot on there.

Gazza M

Clrnc bit of hyperbole from neville, in that he's not WC at 8 either - yet. I think he can be a unique force at 8 though, with his high pressing and ability to chase back on defense, far moreso than at 6. we need someone with better passing and press resistance there. being good at 6 for West ham is miles away from being good at 6 for a CL level club.

Big Willie

Qwiss he's spot on there.

100%

Panda

Time to motivate your old teammates Rice 🫠

JazzG

The guy has a 6th sense when it comes to things like this, almost like he's on his toes and as soon as the opportunity is there he'll step in. They are 4v2 in that situation and he sniffs out the danger.

Burnwinter

JazzG as soon as the opportunity is there he'll step in

My theory would be that Rice is reacting slightly before the chance would be visible to a less aware player.

If you run the animation back, Rice starts to move about one stride after the bad touch, which would be a bit under half a second, or only a little over the optimal human reflex time—but he sees it off the boot. It's not quite superhuman, I'd say it's more that Rice just has more sophisticated "pictures" than 99% of players.

flobaba

It's instinctive. Great defenders/defensive midfielders have it.

In that scenario he'll be keenly aware of two things - 1) the tempo and consistency of the opposition player's touch.

2) the opposition player's focus.

In the split second or moment they look up to evaluate their options. The focus on the ball is gone and you can sneak in to steal the ball or at least force a 50-50 where they have to protect it and can't execute their next pass as intended.

That was one of my specialties when I used to play. Picking off poor first touches or intercepting a loose touch in transition. Rice probably reads these situations 100x better than I ever could.

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