Arsenal midfielder Declan Rice has just made a really surprising admission about his role at West Ham United.
Declan Rice left West Ham United to join our London rivals Arsenal in a £105 million deal in the summer of 2023.
The 25-year-old has been a huge success with the Gunners, and that will come as no surprise at all to the Hammers fans who watched him grow as a player and a man over the past four or five years.
Rice has played a crucial role in Arsenal’s 2023/24 season, and they’re now in a strong position to win their first Premier League title since 2004.
The England international recently admitted that his role has completely changed at Arsenal. It’s hard to suggest that he hasn’t improved as a player, as much as we don’t like to admit it.
Now Dec has opened up on his precise role with the Hammers, and it may well surprise a few people…
Declan Rice makes claim about his role at West Ham
The powerful midfielder has shown a lot more attacking threat with the Gunners this season.
He has bagged six goals and eight assists in 35 Premier League games for Arsenal so far (Transfermarkt) – eight more goal contributions than his best season with the Hammers.
Rice is undoubtedly one of the very best box-to-box central midfield players in world football, if not the best.
And now he has opened up on what he was asked to do by David Moyes during his time at West Ham…
Rice responded when asked to describe what his role was under Moyes at the London Stadium, when speaking to The Athletic:
“At West Ham last year, I was playing so many passes long. But that was our style. Moyes loved me dropping into ‘false full-back’ (on the left) because I could then cut inside and hit the opposite side. And, as you can see (on the graph), loads of passes going out to that right side – that was a big theme for me and (Vladimir) Coufal, and (Jarrod) Bowen, having that relationship where, if I get it, for Coufal to go. I used to hit that zone a lot.”
So essentially, Moyes told one of the very best and most athletic central midfielders in the Premier League to play as a ‘false left-back’!
Incredible, truly incredible.
As good as Declan Rice was for West Ham, he has unquestionably improved under Mikel Arteta at Arsenal.
That admission from Dec was astonishing to hear, and it has actually frustrated me because I feel like Moyes could have used him so much better.
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