West Ham United club captain Declan Rice has responded to criticism from Graeme Souness and Roy Keane.
Both Graeme Souness and Roy Keane have praised West Ham ace Declan Rice recently for his ball-winning ability, but criticised him for his poor range of passing and lack of goals and assists.
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The West Ham United midfielder is an exceptionally gifted passer of the football, so the first point is complete rubbish.
However, Souness and Keane do have a point with their comments about Rice’s lack of goals and assists.
Again though, if the 39-capped England international is a defensive midfielder, scoring and creating is not his job. That said, if the 24-year-old wants to evolve into more of a box-to-box midfielder, then he definitely does need to start contributing more in the final third.
What does Dec think of the criticisms being hurled his way though?
Declan Rice responds to Graeme Souness and Roy Keane
The Hammers star has been speaking to reporters ahead of the Italy vs England EURO 2024 qualifying clash tonight.
The 24-year-old is one of the best midfielders in world football in his specific position and is undoubtedly the most valuable player that David Moyes has amongst his ranks at the London Stadium.
However, there are clearly parts of his game that can be improved.
And Rice told reporters what he thinks of the recent criticism from Souness and Keane, as quoted by the Independent:
“It’s harsh. I think it’s harsh because Souness doesn’t watch West Ham every week. There’s loads of West Ham fans, 60,000 go every week, and see what I do. So I think to say I’m only good at one of three is harsh but Souness was a top midfielder, a top player and when someone like him speaks you have to sometimes listen and take on board where you can improve if that’s true. And obviously Roy as well. Roy has said some glowing things about me in the past but also sometimes he’s also said some things that he thinks I can improve on as well. It’s one of those things you take with a pinch of salt and try not to let it affect you too much. I can take criticism on the chin quite well so if it is that way I will listen to it to see where I can improve.”
Rice went on to describe how taking himself off social media has left him ignorant to the goings on in the world today:
“You have to take on board what people say otherwise you’re never going to improve. I try not to read too much. I was saying to Gareth on the way here I don’t really know about anything that’s going on in the world at the minute because I’ve come off all that social media stuff, so stuff that’s going on in the day of the life of the world I don’t know.”
“I don’t know what’s going on in football, don’t know what Premier League fixtures. I couldn’t tell you who’s playing who because someone really close to me said the other week I always look at other clubs in terms of fixtures and results and they just said we can only worry about ourselves. When I actually thought about that, it’s true. If we win our games of football at West Ham we will be just fine. There’s no point stressing myself about what other people say and what other people are doing. I can only control what happens with us as players.”
In fairness to Rice, that’s an incredibly mature response to the criticism from Souness and Keane.
If the 24-year-old West Ham star does want to reach the next level, he has to listen to ex-players who were at the very top of the game.
I have no doubts in my mind that the Hammers star will go on to become an elite midfield player at one of the very best clubs in world football.
His response to Souness and Keane proves that in my view.
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