How Declan Rice Would Take Arsenal To The Next Level
Arsenal are closing in on the transfer of Declan Rice. But the current West Ham United captain doesn't just upgrade one position in Mikel Arteta's squad, he improves the entire team in the process.
Category
đŸ¥‡
SportsTranscript
00:00 Hi there everybody, my name's Adam Cleary and I want to talk about Declan Rice.
00:10 Now thought experiment, if I was Mauricio Pochettino, I'm not obviously, but if I was,
00:14 I would be moving heaven and earth right now to sign Declan Rice.
00:18 In fact, I don't think there's a football team on the planet who needs Declan Rice as
00:22 badly as Chelsea need Declan Rice, but the beauty of transfers is that they go both ways.
00:27 And additional thought experiment, if I was Declan Rice, I'm not by the way, but if I
00:30 was, I would be moving heaven and earth to join Arsenal right now, because I don't think
00:35 there's a football team on the planet where Declan Rice could have as much fun as he could
00:39 with Arsenal.
00:40 In fact, I would go so far as to say that perhaps they might be perfect together.
00:46 All right, so really quick explain of what Arsenal do, because I presume the majority
00:51 of people watching this video are probably Arsenal fans, but just in case you're not,
00:54 just in case you haven't been paying attention, this is you.
00:57 It's nominally a 4-3-3, but Arsenal are one of those teams, of course, who do that box
01:00 midfield where one of the midfielders goes over theirs and Cenko comes across from left
01:04 back, the defenders shuffle around into a back three, and that's kind of how you do
01:08 your build up.
01:09 But Arsenal do it slightly differently to Man City, because sometimes they'll just go
01:12 absolutely loco and Ben White will come into the middle as well and they'll have this like
01:16 2-3-2-3 thing going on.
01:19 Now when they do it this way, it lets them have that little triangle between party and
01:21 the defenders for the build up, and then both the full backs, Cenko and White, can kind
01:25 of invert and allow Martinelli and Saket to play slightly wider, or they can go outside
01:29 and they can go inside.
01:30 It gives them a lot of options, basically, but the two key players in all of this, as
01:34 far as the rice conversation goes, are Thomas Pardee and Granachaga.
01:38 Now the reason Mikel Arteta has his defenders all over the place and has these crazy build
01:42 up structures is because in these two players, Mikel Arteta does not have absolute faith,
01:48 let's say.
01:49 Now, this is a tremendous season, it's not a criticism whatsoever, but in an ideal world,
01:52 a team at Arsenal's level would have someone a lot more creative, where Xhaka is, and someone
01:58 a lot more reliable, where Pardee is.
02:00 Now you're not really going to upgrade that front three without spending a load of money,
02:04 and the defence when Saliba's in it is really solid, and Odegaard could have been player
02:08 of the season, so these two, that's where you upgrade.
02:11 And the reason you want Declan Rice here is because he actually improves on both of those
02:17 players.
02:18 Now, I hear you say you can't possibly have Declan Rice replace two footballers, Adam,
02:23 well, if you're Arsenal, you actually can, because he will do the work of two of your
02:27 existing players, and do it better than both of them.
02:30 Now in this role, in front of the back four, Thomas Pardee is a perfectly competent defensive
02:33 midfielder.
02:34 Now in the build up, he's dead neat and tidy, and he gets involved with the play, but in
02:37 the purely defensive aspect of this job, he's a reasonably accomplished tackler, he makes
02:42 the odd interception here and there, and where needs be, he can carry the ball further up
02:46 the pitch.
02:47 I'm just going to swap those out for Declan Rice's numbers a second, and oh no, he's a
02:50 monster.
02:51 Just in the opinion of little old me here, I don't think there's a better number six
02:54 in the Premier League right now.
02:56 Like the slightly better tacklers, yes, Paulinho at Fulham, he wins the ball back more reliably,
02:59 but he doesn't read the game as well, and he doesn't carry the ball as well, and then
03:03 like Bruno GuimarĂ£es at Newcastle, yeah, he's a great progressive carrier, yeah, he
03:07 reads the game brilliantly, but he's not as reliable in the tackle.
03:10 Rice kind of has it all.
03:11 Like just look at this, for example, reads the game, reads the game, and then bang, wins
03:15 the ball, and here, bang, wins the ball, and then carries, carries, carries, carries, carries.
03:19 How could you not want that in your team?
03:21 Now that's why he's better than Partey at number six, but why is he better than Schacher
03:24 at number eight?
03:25 If we just quickly look at the numbers, and every single passing metric you'd care to
03:28 measure it, Declan Rice is much better on the ball than Granachakka, so even before
03:31 we start getting into the complex stuff, that's an immediate upgrade.
03:34 But the one area though where Schacher's got him absolutely dusted is in assists.
03:38 He contributes to a lot more goals than Declan Rice does.
03:41 And just putting aside the fact that he plays for Arsenal, who score loads and loads of
03:44 goals, and Rice plays for West Ham, who score a lot fewer, and that should naturally explain
03:48 a bit of a discrepancy.
03:49 The jobs they do here also explain that.
03:52 Schacher's job in this Arsenal team, let's just pretend they're on some mad big attack
03:56 here right now, is if he receives the ball in the final third, his job is to pass it
04:00 to somebody else who's possibly a little bit more creative, and then what he tends to do
04:04 is make this run in the channel to either be an option for a pass, or to create a bit
04:08 of chaos, or to get onto the end of a cross, or just to contribute something in the box.
04:12 The thing is, I'm just going to chuck this model away again, if Declan Rice was in the
04:15 team, that is not what would happen.
04:17 Declan Rice would receive the ball in the final third, and he would make a similar pass.
04:21 He might go past one or two people, he might just do something a little bit simpler with
04:24 it, but then he will occupy this central position.
04:28 And the reason that could be so important to Arsenal is when Schacher makes a run, that
04:31 inherently means that somebody else can't do something.
04:34 They open a risk of a counter-attack if they push too many men forward, and then if Schacher's
04:38 in the box, then possibly Saka can't be there, or possibly Martinelli can't be there, or
04:42 possibly Jesus or Odegaard, or one of these players that can just score and create goals
04:47 for fun, can't do something because Schacher's made that run.
04:50 Declan Rice will not make that run.
04:53 What he'll do instead is simply sit and hover and wait on the edge of the box while all
04:58 these other players make runs and make passes and do fun stuff in case it'll come back to
05:02 him and he'll be really good at recycling and moving it around.
05:05 But his job is when Arsenal lose that ball, he makes sure they don't then lose a goal.
05:12 Having him in that team instead of Schacher will literally allow five, six, possibly even
05:16 seven more attacking or creative players if they start messing around with the full-backs
05:20 to do their thing, because Declan Rice will be doing his thing.
05:26 No team in the Premier League last season made more interceptions per game than West
05:30 Ham, and no player in the Premier League last season made more interceptions per game than
05:35 Declan Rice.
05:36 In fact, and this one's slightly complicated, West Ham, as a percentage of the goals they
05:40 conceded, conceded half as many counter-attacks as Arsenal did.
05:45 Basically, you just don't easily break on a team that's got Declan Rice in it.
05:49 So just to sum all this up for you, Declan Rice does Thomas Partey's job better than
05:53 Thomas Partey, and he does Granit Xhaka's job better than Granit Xhaka, but that's not
05:58 all.
05:59 Not only does he recover the ball really well and make all these interceptions, but he can
06:01 both carry it excellently and play amazing switches of play.
06:05 Like, if you've just won the ball back in your own part of the pitch and you can either
06:09 dribble around some players or hit a long ball to a man in space, you can kill teams
06:13 so easily.
06:14 And I mean, also the main source of criticism Declan Rice gets right now is that, "Oh,
06:18 he doesn't contribute enough in the final third, he doesn't score enough goals, he doesn't
06:22 get enough assists," but mostly because a lot of pundits in this country...
06:26 Hang on, let me just explain what this butterfly meme...
06:35 Like you put Declan Rice in this Arsenal team around better players in games where he's
06:39 going to be spending more time in the opposition third, where he's going to have more chances
06:43 to do this stuff, and you watch, those numbers will go up.
06:47 I just think he's neat.
06:48 It's the knock-on effect to the rest of the team that I actually think is so cool about
06:52 Rice going to Arsenal, because if they get him, then they can also go get another number
06:55 eight that can make magic happen on the edge of the box, and go get other fullbacks who
06:59 are perhaps better on the overlap or going outside, which will in turn allow Saka and
07:03 Martinelli to play a lot closer to the goal instead of them having to hold the width.
07:06 So yeah, I think genuinely, they should buy him.
07:11 Whatever the cost is, I'd spend it.
07:14 Like Arsenal have today been linked with a move for Kai Havertz of all players, and all
07:17 the Arsenal fans I know personally are always talking about, "Oh, how can we get Emile Smith-Rowe
07:21 back into this team?
07:22 How can we accommodate another creative player like Oerdegaard without having to drop Oerdegaard?"
07:27 And well, that's how you do it.
07:28 You buy Declan Rice.
07:29 He'll completely replace Thomas Party as defensive number six, but also his progressive
07:34 ability and his passing ability, and you don't need Granit Xhaka at number eight at the same
07:38 time.
07:39 And not to be too poetic about this or anything, but the 92 million pound figure that's currently
07:43 floating around for him is obviously a lot of money for one player, but when you're actually
07:48 technically buying two, it starts to look a lot better value.
07:52 But anyway, that's just what I think.
07:53 So Arsenal fans, are you excited about the prospect of signing Declan Rice?
07:57 And Arsenal fans, are you worried about the prospect of signing Declan Rice?
08:00 Whether your knees are quivering with excitement or nerves, I would like to hear about it.
08:05 In the meantime though, you can catch me on Twitter @AdamCleary, C-L-E-R-Y, 442 across
08:08 the entire social spectrum @442.
08:11 But until the meantime, I've been Adam Cleary.
08:14 It's really, really hot in here, and I'll see you soon.
08:17 Bye!