West Ham star Declan Rice will be furious with what pundit Graeme Souness has just said about him in a new rant.
As well as being one of the best midfielders in world football, Hammers captain Rice is one of the most bubbly and likeable characters in the game too.
But if you want to wipe the smile off Rice’s face just tell him he is a centre-back and not a midfielder.
It took the rest of the world some time to wake up to West Ham talisman Rice’s supreme talent.
He has had to gradually earn the respect of many rival fans and pundits with top performance after top performance for club and country over the last few years.
The likes of John Terry have declared the West Ham midfielder as the best player in his position in world football.
And one of the best English midfielders there was, Glenn Hoddle, has said Rice is the best player in the Premier League in the past.
From the minute West Ham fans laid eyes on Rice in the first team they knew he was special.
But one pundit who has never been fully convinced is Souness.
Souness has repeatedly insisted – almost ad nauseam – that Rice is not a top class modern midfielder and should be playing centre-back instead.
Hammers boss David Moyes disagreed with his fellow Scot over such comments in the past.
And Rice himself described them as ‘laughable’ stating “I think you can see in my game I’m never a centre-back”.
So West Ham star Rice will be furious with what pundit Souness says about him in a new rant.
Speaking at length about Rice in his new Daily Mail column, Souness once again says the West Ham man should be a centre-back.
And the pundit states Rice only has one of the three fundamental qualities needed for a top class midfielder.
“This role (central midfield) is a vital part of any team because in an ideal world, it’s multi-dimensional,” Souness says in The Daily Mail.
“You are creative, you chip in with goals and you’ve got a defensive head at all times. Even when you’re on the front foot, you are thinking: ‘We are vulnerable if we lose possession.’ If you’ve got all three of those attributes, you’re worth your weight in gold. For me, Rice has just one of them…
“For the centre-halves he plays in front of, he will be fantastic, because he’s preventing that dangerous, killer-ball played into the striker or strikers. In that sense, he’s a 10 out of 10. But ultimately, I think he might be a centre-half.
“It’s when you comes to the other two important parts of being a central midfield player that I do think Rice is a bit short. Factor those in and I would have to say he’s not the best in that position.”
Souness does sing Rice’s praises throughout the column and insists he is worth a British transfer record fee if he is sold by West Ham in the summer.
But Rice will be fuming with Souness once again stating he will end up as a centre-back.
Around this time last year Souness criticised Rice for his lack of goals.
It is an area Rice must improve, there is no doubt. He says so himself, especially after being given more freedom to get forward.
But as Rice also says himself, he has far too much to offer to the team to be stuck at the back.
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