Watch how Declan Rice plays, if you wanna make it easly

Profile

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name

 

Declan Rice

 

Birth

14th January 1999

 

 

Belong

 

National team : England

Club : Arsenal

Position

 

Midfielder

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There are plenty of people who are good at football in the world.

However, finding someone who makes football easy is actually harder than you might think.

The same goes for the professional stage. 

Players utilize their respective strengths such as dazzling skills, creative passes, and powerful physique while playing football. 

If you're asked to think of a skilled player, many players who utilize the aforementioned strengths would come to mind. However, if you're asked to think of a player who just makes football easy, surprisingly not many come to mind.

The player I want to talk about today, Declan Rice, is personally one of those few players.

He is currently one of the absolute key players at Arsenal, and is considered indispensable for the England national team as well.

Having progressed through Chelsea's youth system before making his professional debut at West Ham United, Rice has been a pivotal figure from a young age, never missing out on being a starter.

After spending seven years at West Ham, he made a big-money move to Arsenal in the summer of 2023 for a staggering transfer fee of €117 million.

Players who command hefty transfer fees often become the subject of much discussion among fans and pundits alike.

However, there are occasions when the talk of transfer fees fades away completely. 

This typically occurs when a player performs at such a level that the transfer fee becomes inconsequential. 

In other words, when they prove to be worth every penny, people stop dwelling on the amount of money spent.

Declan Rice falls into this category.

No one blames Arsenal for spending €117 million on Rice, nor does anyone emphasize the burden of his transfer fee being €117 million.

That's because he was deemed necessary for Arsenal, and he's delivering on that necessity.

Arsenal's manager, Arteta, shares a similar philosophy with Pep Guardiola. 

The core of Arteta's tactics revolves around quick, short passing through the center, advancing forward, and breaking down the opponent's defense.

To execute this, two things are crucial: precise passing ability and constantly finding and moving into space. These happen to be things Rice excels at.

Just passing and moving.

If you do that well, you don't need flashy individual skills or special tricks for evading pressure.

Whether it's an out-front kick or a liner kick, none of that is necessary.

Just by exchanging passes inside and moving into empty spaces, the opponent's defense naturally gets peeled off.

Rice excels at this.

 

When you watch him play, there's not much of using special skills to get past opponents,
He doesn't even dribble for long distances, shaking off 3~4 opponents.
What he simply does is move between the opponent players to receive passes from the defense,
Then immediately pass to our teammate without a marker and move again to an unmarked area.

Even when he dribbles with the ball, it's not to get past defenders, but simply to advance by moving into empty spaces.

So, fancy skills aren't really necessary.
Indeed, he makes football easy.

However, if that were the only thing he did well, Rice wouldn't receive this level of praise. 

 

There's another player on the team who excels at similar things, and that's Jorginho. 

Rice knows how to do what Jorginho doesn't do well.

 

Another advantage of Rice, who is positioned closer to a defensive midfielder, is his defensive prowess. 

While he excels in anticipation and football intelligence, there's one more thing: his physicality supports his defensive capabilities.

With decent speed and a tall stature, Rice shines in defense as well. 

He can predict the opponent's passing lanes and intercept them midway, or rush in with a tackle the moment the opponent receives the pass.

Of course, compared to the peak years of Casemiro, who once dominated this field, Rice may fall short. 

But it's safe to say he possesses top-class defensive abilities.

 

Thanks to these strengths, Rice positions himself in front of the back four, becoming the focal point of the build-up in attack and effectively fulfilling the role of the primary defensive line when defending. 

Moreover, it seems he has recently added box penetration and pressing abilities to his arsenal.

This season, Rice has often scored crucial goals that have secured victories for Arsenal. 

His mid-range shooting, propelled by his unique kicking ability, 

provides catharsis for spectators as the ball sails into the net.

 

Before Rice's arrival, this was a lacking aspect of Arteta's Arsenal. 

As mentioned earlier, Jorginho was a player who provided passes but had defensive vulnerabilities. 

Another midfielder, Thomas Partey, could fulfill a similar role to Rice, but his frequent injuries often kept him sidelined for extended periods.

Personally, I believe if Partey had been consistently healthy, Arsenal might not have needed to acquire Rice. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case.

 

What's even more remarkable for Arsenal and England is that this player is only born in 1999 and, considering his position, he could easily have another decade of playing ahead of him.

It will be exciting to see what achievements Rice will accumulate in the future.