Declan Rice says one Manchester City player is the best in the world.
The Englishman is currently nearing the end of his debut season with Arsenal, who are battling it out with City for the Premier League title.
Having featured in 48 games across all competitions for Mikel Arteta’s side this season, the 25-year-old is clearly a key figure for the north London club.
At such a crucial stage of the campaign, the former West Ham United star has been sharing his thoughts on somone who has been as equally important to City as Rice has been for the Gunners throughout this campaign.
Declan Rice shares his thoughts on Rodri
In a recent interview with The Athletic, Rice had this to say about Rodri, including what it’s like to play against him and what he thinks the similarities and differences are between them as players.
He said: “Good. I enjoy it. We’re different players, I feel.
“With Rodri, he was born in Spain, he’s always been a natural No 6. You can just tell by the way he plays that he’s worked under Pep (Guardiola) for so long.
“He’s a lot more structured than I am. I’d say I’m a lot more off-the-cuff. Obviously, this season I’ve been more structured. But in terms of the way I play, I feel like… being free a little bit more.
“There are different things that we complement each other on — but no doubt, he’s the best in the world.”
This season has seen the Spaniard feature in 30 of City’s 34 Premier League games, starting all of them and only missing four due to suspensions.
Rice vs Rodri
Even though Rice has played in five more league games than Rodri, the City star has racked up more shots at goal (57 vs 51), progressive passes (332 vs 259), shot-creating actions (140 vs 92) and goal-creating actions (21 vs 11) than Rice.
So, from an attacking point of view, it’s clear that the Treble-winner is more effective than the Arsenal player.
However, the England international has made more successful tackles (47 vs 39), interceptions (41 vs 22), blocks (34 vs 28) and clearances (52 vs 39) than the £220k-a-week City star.
This, however, may highlight Arsenal need to do more defending in games than City do rather than Rice just being better defensively than Rodri as an individual.
Taking all of that on board, we feel that Rice’s assessment of Rodri and how he compares to the City midfielder is a rather accurate one based on their individual efforts this season.