Chrissieboy wrote: ↑Mon Sep 19, 2022 4:22 am
Definitely more than one reason why his form has dropped and most listed here. Tiredness, club captain, and being let down by teammates. Personally I would say he is being let down by the manager too. Soucek needs dropping right now. That is a shame because Rice, like Bowen, needs a rest too.
That's the point tho .. if he wasn't captain fine, he doesnt look right, players letting him down
But back to my point about his maturity to be our club captain.. he has to be bringing the players up and sorting things (as well as Moyes)
Leader on the pitch he is ok, but I don't think he is mature enough to handle the off the field stuff.
He was on tube and ang golf life the other week and he said he found it weird the texts off the players to sort stuff that noble used to sort
Chrissieboy wrote: ↑Mon Sep 19, 2022 4:22 am
Definitely more than one reason why his form has dropped and most listed here. Tiredness, club captain, and being let down by teammates. Personally I would say he is being let down by the manager too. Soucek needs dropping right now. That is a shame because Rice, like Bowen, needs a rest too.
We do have options now though. Fornals should no longer be out on the left and can play central, Paqueta in the middle, Downes, Lanzini. We have options to allow players a rest. Same with Bowen, we can play Antonio out right or have 2 players behind our striker and not play a right winger.
Problem is, we know the team that’s going to be picked most weeks and the opposition do too. Spending the money we did should allow us to mix things up a bit.
unmartillo wrote: ↑Thu Sep 22, 2022 6:30 pm
Genuine question - who would make a good captain in the team apart from Rice? Is that a ‘position’ in which we are deficient?
It is a good question. Dawson? Ogbonna? No obvious ones amongst the starters. Quite a meek squad.
I honestly don't think Dec is playing to bad,the team are a little off so everyone is a litttle off it.....
Decs very Emotive,shows his feelings easily...that's all that was.
Lucky I wasn't on the Pitch cos Tomas would have got a "What the living F**k was that mate,C'MON...serious but well intentioned.
He'd understand..
For Rice's high levels he's used to regularly reaching, he's playing poorly for him. He'll eventually play himself back in to consistent quality form but will probably take a bit more time. And then then the World Cup will arrive...
unmartillo wrote: ↑Thu Sep 22, 2022 6:30 pm
Genuine question - who would make a good captain in the team apart from Rice? Is that a ‘position’ in which we are deficient?
Well almost certainly we will be looking at another one next season and the current options Ogbonna, Cresswell and Dawson won’t be featuring.
unmartillo wrote: ↑Thu Sep 22, 2022 6:30 pm
Genuine question - who would make a good captain in the team apart from Rice? Is that a ‘position’ in which we are deficient?
Soucek, Cresswell, and Fabianski would be the more senior players that stand out immediately, to me.
MB wrote: ↑Thu Sep 22, 2022 6:21 pm
The more I think about *that* Soucek pass (and the KUMB podcast just reminded me) the more Rice’s reaction annoys me.
Noble cannot come in quick enough to take some of the weight off Rice’s shoulders as he just isn’t there yet as a club captain.
That's been on my mind too. It was appalling and it's not the first time he has reacted like that to a mistake from his teammate. A few yards from Rice we saw Kehrer react as a professional should and immediately started directing the defence in order to recover the position.
Rice is a wonderful player and seemingly an even better person but he has been showing uncharacteristic immaturity since the latter stages of last season.
unmartillo wrote: ↑Thu Sep 22, 2022 6:30 pm
Genuine question - who would make a good captain in the team apart from Rice? Is that a ‘position’ in which we are deficient?
Rice has suffered a bit when asked to play a bit further (vs. Soucek) forward in our system when we’re not being allowed to counter attack. We have all rightfully praised his ability on the ball, and his ability to find cutting or crossfield balls and put them right on the money. He’s better at these things than maybe any other DM on this planet, and in terms of finding these passes from deep areas he’s better than many players on the planet (of any position).
When he’s expected to move further forward and not be the deepest DM however, and other teams specifically set up to not let us counter, it’s not so much that he isn’t capable of moving the ball at this level (or isn’t doing it well, albeit he’s been off his best), it’s that he’s just less often in positions to show off the above abilities. In previous seasons we haven’t had many other players with his ability on the ball and we were permitted to counter, so we needed to allow him to get forward more and when he did there was often more space. Now he’s doing this with less space and movement around him, and he’s still expected to be a defensive monster, which maybe gets him stuck in two minds.
On paper, we now should have enough quality in attacking roles that someone like Rice should be able to stay in his best position and do the things he does better than most on this planet, and still have us able to build attacks. We also should have enough quality against many teams for Decs to be the sole dedicated DM.
Westbourne Bill wrote: ↑Thu Sep 22, 2022 8:31 pm
Well almost certainly we will be looking at another one next season and the current options Ogbonna, Cresswell and Dawson won’t be featuring.
Ognonna is still my pick right now. Embodies all we want from a player.
Believer wrote: ↑Mon Sep 19, 2022 10:49 am
We do have options now though. Fornals should no longer be out on the left and can play central, Paqueta in the middle, Downes, Lanzini. We have options to allow players a rest. Same with Bowen, we can play Antonio out right or have 2 players behind our striker and not play a right winger.
Problem is, we know the team that’s going to be picked most weeks and the opposition do too. Spending the money we did should allow us to mix things up a bit.
Yeah, I would be making those changes but we know Moyes is less likely to. Let's see after these boring internationals are over.
