Rice about TAA: “One of the Best Players I’ve Ever Seen”
England and Arsenal midfielder Declan Rice is convinced that Trent Alexander-Arnold is more than able to play in midfield for England, going so far as to call the Liverpool man “one of the best players I’ve ever seen”.
While nominally a right-back, Alexander-Arnold has started the games against Serbia and Denmark in midfield. He has faced waves of criticism from fans and pundits alike for his performances in an unfamiliar role, while coach Gareth Southgate labelled the decision to include him in the middle of the park “an experiment”.
Speaking to the media ahead of the final group stage clash against Slovenia, Rice had the following to say about his international midfield partner: “It’s funny because people were calling for Trent to play in midfield.
“Half the country are calling for Trent to play in midfield. You play him in midfield and then you want to bring him down. I don’t get it. I don’t get it at all.
“I’ll defend all of my boys until the day I never put on an England shirt. Trent is one of the best players I’ve ever seen.
“Don’t call for someone to play in a position and then backtrack, all because you think he’s had a bad game or something. I’ll tell you now, Trent can play in midfield. I’ve seen it at England; I’ve seen it for Liverpool. He’s unbelievable. That’s what I say to people that you see saying that type of stuff.”
Despite this glowing recommendation from Declan Rice, Alexander-Arnold is set to be dropped for tonight’s game. Conor Gallagher, who came off the bench to replace him in both of England’s games at the EUROs so far, is expected to start against Slovenia.
At the same time, Rice spoke about whether he is disappointed by some of the negative comments coming from players who have represented England in the past, such as Gary Lineker calling the team’s performance against Denmark “s**t”.
“No, I’m not disappointed because I’ve played football long enough now, I know how they work,” Rice said. “That’s why I really do not get bothered about it at all.
“Look, they’re entitled to their opinion. They’re on TV, they’re saying whatever they want. I know some of them personally. They’re great guys.
“They’ve been where I’m sat, where our other players have sat and not done well at tournaments. So look, I don’t know why we feel like such a negative thing. We’re talking like we’re going out of the tournament here.”
Instead, Rice decided to focus on the positives: “We’re top of the group, we need to stay positive, stay upbeat. Let’s have some positivity going into games. Let’s give players the best confidence in the world.
“Players like Phil Foden, Bukayo Saka, Jude Bellingham, tell them they’re the best players in the world. Make them read that and think ‘I’m going to go out there and perform and give it absolutely everything’.”
What do you think about Rice’s comments? And how do you rate TAA as a midfielder?
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