Declan Rice ran on to Martin Ødegaard’s through ball, rounded Kepa Arrizabalaga and clipped the ball over the lunging Illia Zabarnyi into the net.
He ran to the crowd and bowed in delight, a picture of perfect happiness. The glorious double against Real Madrid has given him the bug − a confirmed case of goal fever. The only prescription? More goals.
It’s hard to blame Rice for getting addicted to moments like that but you hope he doesn’t forget there’s much more to being a top midfield player than scoring goals.
A bit like Gareth Bale, Rice has spent his career advancing up the pitch into increasingly attacking positions. He grew up idolising John Terry and started off as a centre back. David Moyes soon pushed him into defensive midfield. This season Mikel Arteta has mostly used him as a box-to-box 8. Against Bournemouth on Saturday evening, Sky Sports’ Alan Smith remarked Rice was “playing like a centre-forward”.
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Unlike Bale, the further forward Rice plays the more average he becomes.
Rice’s ultra-attacking role against Bournemouth was partly dictated by the limitations of Arsenal’s squad. With Kai Havertz still injured and Thomas Partey back in the side at 6, Rice had the task of supporting the stand-in centre-forward, Leandro Trossard.
The word “barnstorming” only gets used these days in connection with the type of performance Rice delivered in the first half. There must have been a sense of vindication for those Arsenal fans who had blamed the failure to ignite against PSG on Arteta‘s decision to move Rice back to 6 to cover for the suspended Partey.
With the second leg against PSG looming, Rice was substituted before Bournemouth scored their late winner. But he had already watched from his high midfield position as Bournemouth made and missed a disturbing number of chances.
Rice emerged blameless for the defeat: he’d scored, what more can anyone ask?
Well for one thing, if you’re going to be one of your team’s main attackers you have to be efficient in front of goal. Arsenal might not have lost had Rice not shanked a couple of good chances that came his way in the first half − moments that didn’t exactly scream ‘Steven Gerrard’ or ‘Frank Lampard’.
It looks unfortunately as though Rice is the latest English midfielder to be seduced by the notion that playing in midfield is all about the glory moments of scoring and setting up goals.
Pundits who should know better are always promoting this idea. Graeme Souness, Roy Keane and Jamie Redknapp have all criticised Rice for not getting enough goals and assists.
Rice could have been a brilliant central defender and he would be most valuable to both Arsenal and England as a brilliant defensive midfielder, but he seems more excited by the prospect of becoming a decent but not exceptional attacking midfielder who gets to run towards goal and shoot. He risks becoming the latest victim of a culture where every midfielder wants to be Gerrard or Lampard and nobody wants to be Rodri.
If you can dribble and shoot like Jude Bellingham then okay, it makes sense to focus on goals. If you have the flair and accuracy of Cole Palmer, or if you are Phil Foden and excel in small spaces then yes, you should probably be up around the edge of the box trying to make things happen.
Rice has different strengths. He compares to Gerrard or Lampard in power and athleticism, but he lacks their exceptional quality at finishing. His feet are just that little bit slower and there’s not much he can do about that.
The top attacking midfielders have an eye for an opening which Rice has seldom demonstrated. A curiosity of his time in the Premier League is that he has played just 16 through-balls in 275 matches over eight seasons.
Even this season, when he has mainly been used in the more attacking role, he has just four. Bruno Fernandes, the leader in this metric, has 27 this season; second-placed Youri Tielemans has 24. If you compare their Premier League careers, Kevin De Bruyne plays through-balls at about 15 times the rate of Rice.
As an attacker Rice is most often praised for ball-carrying, which is an important skill in rugby. We all love seeing a player storm 60 yards up the pitch with the ball but in the top-level game you don’t actually get many chances to do that.
The best central midfielders in Europe over the last 10-15 years don’t care about goals and assists or charging long distances with the ball. Luka Modric and Toni Kroos each averaged about three goals a season for Real Madrid. Sergio Busquets scored just 18 goals in 15 seasons at Barcelona. Frenkie de Jong averages three per season, Pedri is a comparatively prolific four-goal-a-season man. Xavi averaged five goals a season for Barcelona and the genius Iniesta, incredibly, less than four.
Nobody accused these players of not contributing enough to the team because they hardly ever scored. They left the goalscoring to the goalscorers. They knew their job was to make the team play well.
The last top-class English midfielder to devote himself to the art of deep-lying midfield play was Michael Carrick. He only averaged two goals a season, but Manchester United won 12 trophies in his 12 seasons at the club. A fellow graduate of the West Ham academy, Carrick is a better model for Rice than Gerrard or Lampard.
Excelling in a deep midfield position would also fit in better with what Rice’s two teams need. England have a plethora of 8s and 10s – Bellingham, Foden, Palmer, Rodgers, Maddison, Mainoo, Jones, Rodgers – but hardly anyone at 6 besides Adam Wharton.
Arsenal surely can’t risk another season hoping that Kai Havertz is going to grow into a champion-quality false nine. With a new striker likely to arrive this summer, if Havertz has a future in the team it will surely be as an 8.
The defeat to Bournemouth was the 10th time this season that Arsenal had failed to win after taking the lead. They’ve now lost 21 points from winning positions, their joint-worst record in the Premier League era. It’s a gut-wrenching statistic for a coach who prizes defensive stability and efficiency.
They are crying out for a Rodri. Is Rice up for the challenge?
