Summer 2023 marks many transfer milestones and Declan Rice is one of the revolutionary signings.
Arsenal have not shown the full value of the English player who holds the transfer record.
Arsenal must pay West Ham a fee of £ 100 million (for 24 months). Not including the accompanying clause of 5 million pounds, this is the highest fixed price for an English player, equivalent to the amount of money Man City spent to sign Jack Grealish.
The appearance of Declan Rice caused Arsenal to have an unprecedented summer of spending: 196.3 million pounds for 3 rookies (in the future, the club may have to pay an additional 12.3 million pounds related to these contracts). .
Although only 24 years old, Declan Rice has had 6 seasons as a West Ham mainstay. He reached 204 Premier League games before joining Arsenal (currently 207 games, scoring 10 goals).
The midfielder, who had 3 matches for the Republic of Ireland before becoming an England international, has always been the target of clubs in recent transfer periods.
Almost every year Chelsea – where Rice spent seven years in the academy – and MU not less than once questioned him. Liverpool and Man City also sometimes speak to players born in northwest London.
Declan Rice turned down all tempting offers. It wasn’t until he helped West Ham win the Europa Conference League, the team’s first trophy in the 21st century, and also the first international title in history, that he decided to leave.
Rice’s workload in Arsenal’s midfield is huge.
West Ham is no longer a good fit for Rice. To continue to grow, he needs a bigger environment and the ability to compete for prestigious titles. Not only with English football but also in the European arena.
When Arsenal approached, Declan did not hesitate to nod. He was convinced by the project that Mikel Arteta implemented, turning “Gunners” into one of the most beautiful football clubs on the old continent last season (along with Napoli, Man City and Bayern Munich before the 2022 World Cup).
Moving to Arsenal also helped Rice receive a salary of 240,000 pounds per week, 4 times higher than his previous income at West Ham (60,000 pounds/week; ranked 12th in the salary bracket of teams led by David Moyes).
Relieve pressure on Declan Rice
After the first 3 matches in the new shirt, Declan Rice has not performed as expected. At least based on the money the club invested in him.
Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal operates on a 4-3-3 formation. This system is not like West Ham, but Rice is familiar when playing for England.
At West Ham, Moyes arranged a 4-2-3-1 formula, with Tomas Soucek a diligent warrior always fighting to share the burden of midfield with Rice.
In England’s matches, Rice received great help from Jordan Henderson. Recently, in the EURO 2024 qualifying round, beside him, there was a very dynamic Alexander-Arnold.
Rice received no such help at Arsenal, having been placed in the center of a three-man midfield by Mikel Arteta.
The role of Rice went to Thomas Partey last season. At that time, the middle line also had Granit Xhaka who always played enthusiastically with fiery collisions.
Currently, two sides of Rice are purely offensive people: Martin Odegaard and Kai Havertz.
Odegaard always tends to push forward, as Arteta allows the Norwegian player to play freely to take advantage of shots from the second line. Meanwhile, Havertz has not played in midfield as he is now in his three seasons with Chelsea.
The last time Havertz played as a central midfielder was in the 2018-19 season, when he was still wearing Leverkusen.
Declan Rice needs a convincing performance against MU.
This explains the low efficiency of Rice. He stood out the most on the team with 8 out of 9 successful tackles, 17 ball wins, but lost 12 out of 14 aerial duels.
Declan Rice is receiving a high workload, leading to Arsenal holding the ball 67.3% but not being able to impose the game, struggling to win against Nottingham Forest and Crystal Palace, and being held to a draw by Fulham at the Emirates.
Taking on MU at home (10:30 p.m. September 3), Mikel Arteta must help Rice relieve the pressure from his record contract, as well as the workload he shouldered in the middle of the field.
Personally, MU has always been Rice’s obsession. He has 11 encounters with “Red Devils”, only 3 wins and 9 defeats.
Therefore, the former West Ham captain wants to prove himself even more tonight, entering one of the most influential matches in English football.
Ngoc Huy | 13:32 September 3, 2023
