Arsenal secured a huge victory by beating Man United 3-1, with Declan Rice taking all the plaudits for his performance. But while there was an element of fortune to his injury time goal, it's actually a fitting reward for how his game has evolved in his short time under Mikel Arteta
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00:00 Hello there you beautiful lot, Adam Cleary from 442 here. You're looking really well
00:08 I have to say and Declan Rice, just, just Declan Rice. That's the intro.
00:15 Alright so as you no doubt saw on Sunday, Arsenal came from 1-0 down to beat Manchester
00:22 United in the most thrilling and dramatic of just classic Premier League circumstances
00:27 but the man getting all the praise for his winning goal and his overall performance was
00:30 of course Declan Rice. Now Arsenal spent a frankly eye-watering sum of money to bring
00:36 him into the club and when you have a player like that you are hoping that fairly quickly
00:40 they have the kind of statement performance that shows that transfer was worth it. Now
00:44 I think personally that game against Man United was that statement performance, I think it
00:48 says a lot about how they're using him, what he's doing, how he's developing as a player
00:51 but before we start I just want to address the one question mark you might have over
00:56 that and that is that it was a goal from a corner and it broke nicely for him and it
01:00 took a deflection, it wasn't some brilliant piece of build-up play that he was instrumental
01:04 in. Can you really make these kind of sweeping generalisations, these sweeping statements
01:10 from such a goal? And in short, yes you can because you have to ask the question, why
01:15 was Declan Rice of all people the man at the back post waiting for that chance to drop?
01:21 Because common sense would tell you not to put a player like Declan Rice in that position,
01:25 that late in a game with everything still in the balance. He is a defensive midfielder,
01:30 he's known for his tackling and his ball winning and Man United's best chance is indeed
01:34 their goal came from situations where they were able to remove him from that position.
01:38 Like if we look at Rashford's open and Man United are able to turn the ball over while
01:42 Declan Rice is here. Yes it's a bad ball from Kai Havertz but if Rice was in the position
01:47 you would expect him to be, that sort of run from Eriksen and indeed the chance as a whole
01:52 probably doesn't come about. They were able to exploit the fact he wasn't where he's supposed
01:56 to be. And indeed the goal that looked like it might have won the game for Manchester
02:00 United before VAR did its whole VAR thing. Declan Rice is the player in that position
02:05 attempting to stop that pass from happening. It only comes about because he just misses
02:10 that tackle. So again we go back to the question, why was Declan Rice of all players the one
02:15 at the back post? Arsenal had plenty of other attacking options. They had better headers
02:19 of the ball, they had players more suitable to be trying to score from a corner and you
02:23 would think you would want somebody like him with his ball playing ability and his defensive
02:27 role to be on the edge of that box. You'd probably expect him to be here. Because I
02:32 mean you come on and say Arsenal hadn't been warned at that point if the corner had been
02:35 bad or it had just broken kindly to a Man United player. They were almost certainly
02:39 going to spring another counter attack on them. So why not have Rice there? Well very
02:44 simply my friends because the Declan Rice we saw at West Ham is not the Declan Rice
02:50 at Arsenal. He is in that position in the box looking for a chance because that is his
02:56 job. And I'll show you what I mean here. When Arsenal signed Declan Rice I think everybody
03:00 assumed they would stay with their 4-3-3 shape and he would play here. He's effectively just
03:05 a premium upgrade on Thomas Partey and if they wanted to do that boxman feel then Zinchenko
03:09 would come across and they'd get it that way. And we've even seen them using Partey at right
03:13 back. He then comes across. Rice stays in the middle and they've got their 4 that way.
03:18 But this is not what has been happening. Declan Rice is not playing as either a single pivot
03:23 or a double pivot in this Arsenal side. He's playing as an 8. And just in case you're not
03:28 totally sold on that being his job. We know that's his job because he's literally told
03:32 us that's his job. Recently I was able to sit down with him and we talked about how
03:36 he likes to play, the tactics at Arsenal, what he does on a football pitch and one of
03:39 the major things he came out with was I don't really see myself as a defensive player. I
03:43 want to see myself as more of an attacking player and the role he was giving at Arsenal,
03:47 the instructions he was getting from Arteta were designed to allow him to expand that
03:52 part of his game. And yes that video will be in full on the channel in the very, very
03:55 near future. I think this week. I'll see when I get a chance to edit it but it should be
04:00 along fairly shortly. So if you would like to watch that, if you don't want to miss it,
04:04 do make sure you hit the subscribe button at some point during this video because A)
04:07 that really helps us out and we get more subscribers and that's really, really good for us but
04:11 also you'll know when the rice fades drops so win-win. And you can see this in his passing
04:16 map from the game. If he was playing as a six or just in the pocket in front of the
04:20 defence here, these would be a lot shorter, they would be a lot simpler, there would be
04:23 far fewer of them dotted around the flanks. They would all sort of be concentrated in
04:27 this area. But as you can see, he's absolutely everywhere. But the really, really telling
04:31 thing here is not in his successful passes, we'll just get rid of those, they are in his
04:36 unsuccessful passes. Every single time he lost the ball for Arsenal, barring just that
04:40 random one in the channel, forget about that, he was trying to play a killer pass into one
04:46 of the attackers in the final third of the pitch. And if you remember, that was one of
04:50 the criticisms he had at West Ham, like his ability was undeniable, he was great in the
04:54 tackle, he was obviously a great leader for that club, but he just didn't influence things
04:58 regularly enough in the final third. That's what was stopping him being considered the
05:02 next great English midfielder. And while it's a small sample size, admittedly, we've only
05:06 had four games, if we look at the number of completed passes into the final third this
05:11 season, Declan Rice is fifth of every player in the league, fifth. And this is why Arsenal
05:17 spent that much money on him. They think there is a player in there who is going to evolve
05:21 to be as effective in this part of the pitch as he was in this part of the pitch. And what's
05:25 been so impressive about these early games he's had for Arsenal is he isn't even really
05:28 compromising his ability in this area, he's still contributing massively defensively,
05:33 he's starting to add a lot more in this part as well. But combined tackles and interceptions
05:37 this season, he's currently 15th in the league, which might not sound that impressive, but
05:41 you've got to bear in mind that A) there's like 400 players in the Premier League who've
05:46 already got minutes and 15th out of 400 really isn't that bad, and the majority of the ones
05:51 above him all play for teams who are doing a lot more defending, who see a lot less of
05:56 the ball. Like just for context, Rodri is currently the highest Manchester City player
05:59 in that league and he's in the 30s somewhere, so it's not really a stat you associate with
06:04 the top, top, top, top teams, but Rice is still contributing a lot there. He defends,
06:08 he attacks, he now also advertises yogurty snack. That's what I genuinely think has been
06:13 so impressive about how he's being used at Arsenal, because that's why he was loitering
06:17 at the back post, that's why he wasn't just sitting on the edge of the box, his primary
06:21 role was to help Arsenal score more goals and thus win more games. But he's doing that
06:26 all while still being so able and so smart in how he chooses to defend. Arsenal should
06:32 have gone 1-0 up in this game when Kai Havertz somehow just stuck his fingers down his throat
06:37 when he should have scored a goal, but if we rewind that clip back far enough, it comes
06:41 from Rice really well reading the game, seeing an opportunity to challenge for the ball,
06:46 winning it back and forcing that turnover. But I think the really interesting thing about
06:50 that one particular tackle is where in the pitch it takes place, like it's in the central
06:54 third of the pitch, right? He's contributing really well to Arsenal's defending, he's winning
06:59 the ball back really well. But if we break that down by where he's doing it, again, have
07:03 to stress yes, very small sample size, we've only played four games, but the numbers already
07:07 show that he's far more likely to be winning the ball back in the middle third of the pitch
07:11 than he is in the defensive third of the pitch. And I mean, yes, that's because Arsenal play
07:15 right on the front foot, they push much further up the pitch than the vast majority of teams
07:19 in this league. The middle third practically is their defensive third when they lose the
07:23 ball. But the fact that Rice is getting back into that position when they lose possession,
07:28 and still let's go back to his pass map, able to float around the pitch as much as he is
07:32 and be in these dangerous areas. That's such a huge tool to have in your pardon the pun
07:39 Arsenal. Wait, tools in your Arsenal. That's not you don't have tools in your Arsenal do
07:43 you? You have tools in your toolbox, you have weapons in your Arsenal. That's what I meant.
07:47 And there isn't a useful statistic for this, but it was noticeable in the game, the amount
07:50 of times Declan Rice got on the ball, faced up the pitch and either ran it forward himself,
07:56 or when he did play it to a teammate who was in an advanced position, kept that run going.
08:01 Now when you do that, yes, you do create holes that Manchester United were occasionally able
08:05 to exploit. But you do also force the game further up the pitch, you provide another
08:09 body in dangerous areas to try and make things happen with. And that is the challenge that
08:14 has been laid down by Mikkel Arteta to Declan Rice this season, you have to contribute as
08:19 an attacking player in the final third. But when we lose possession, you are our best
08:23 tool for winning that ball back. Can you do both? And that is why this game looked like
08:29 being such a statement performance from him because the answer seems to be yes, he can.
08:34 He can still be a really important part of the defence, he'll win the ball back, he'll
08:37 close down passing names, he'll intercept the ball, he'll do all of that. But he will
08:42 push forward, he will force things to happen, he will lurk at the back post at a corner
08:46 in injury time and get you that winning goal. Now of course, the downside to this is that
08:52 it does make Arsenal a little bit more open, makes them slightly more vulnerable to the
08:55 counter attack. I think if we go back to the exact moment Havertz loses that ball, I actually
08:59 don't think Arsenal concede that goal last season because Thomas Partey would not be
09:04 here, Thomas Partey would have been here, he would not have thought to make that run
09:08 into the channel to try and make things happen. He would have been a more conservative presence
09:12 in that team. So Arsenal have to find that balance of still having that defensive solidity
09:18 while being a bit more adventurous and they are still quite not there yet in my opinion.
09:23 That's the thing, isn't it? While I don't think they concede that one specific goal
09:27 last season, I also don't think they go on and score the second either. Like the corner
09:32 comes about because they are really putting that squeeze on Man United, trying several
09:36 different things that they wouldn't have been able to do last season to get a way through.
09:39 And they get the goal because they were happy to commit their defensive midfielder into
09:44 the box to try and just see if anything would happen. It's a risk you take and when it pays
09:49 off it's great. I'll put it to you this way, right? I think over the course of this season
09:53 Arsenal are almost certainly going to concede more goals, but conversely, I do think they
09:59 are going to win more games. And that's football. So yes, there you go. Kurt Sitte here for
10:06 absolutely ages and talk about the tactical intricacies of that game and VAR this and
10:11 VAR that, but I think by a mile the most interesting thing about it was this man. Well, I mean,
10:16 no, obviously not literally this man. This is a Subito figure. He's not even a real person.
10:20 Declan Rice. That's what I meant to say. And again, if you would like to watch the full
10:23 interview we've got coming up with him, please make sure you subscribe to 442 here on YouTube.
10:27 And if you don't care about that, but you just like the video in general, why not? It's
10:30 just fun to click that button. In the meantime, though, grab me on Twitter @AdamCleary. C-L-E-R-Y
10:35 442 socials absolutely everywhere in the corner of the video. And until next time, thank you
10:39 very much for watching. Bye. Yeah, that's it. Bye. Bye.