Declan Rice

[richards30]

Or score a goal at Spurs.

lets not get ahead of ourselves mate............. ;-)

 

[flb]

Angry Arsenal fans gif incoming??

Nothing new mate , they wouldn’t have won the title even if those players had stayed there , they should stick to being rivals to Spurs - another club with delusions of grandeur, right now , West Ham and Chelsea are there rivals , they’ve always had a chip on their shoulders to the North of England , the real powerhouse of English football , 10 CL’s from the big 4 in the NW to the capitals 2 , they hate the NW full stop - they’re small time and always have been.

 

[Gremlin]

lets not get ahead of ourselves mate............. ;-)

Yes, you're right - don't know what I was thinking. Sorry.

Edit: Must still be all giddy from the CL win and thinking we can aspire to unreasonable achievements.

 

[Blue-Ghana]

as Rice adds not much creativity, assists, goals to be fair, I can see Pep allowing winger to attack more, be less disciplined and get into the box more rather than hold the line, and the extra legs from Kovacic, Rice will be used to help out on wide areas meaning they will work tirelessly if we want to still use 3 CB formation.

Gundo, KDB clearly have no legs anymore to do incredible track back and reach out to wider defensive areas but Rice and Kovacic might have plus Rodri. that could even allow wide CB-s to go forward mit bore and winger to actually create panic more often from wide areas.

we will need to add more goal threat from wings anyway imo, as Haaland did have a wonderful season but if he just scores 10 less next time, somebody needs to pick that portion up, and also Gundo wont be here to add his few goals.

Rice aint the midfielder I would go for, would prefer a Kimmich, De Jong type of player with much better football brain and ability to set tempo, join attacks, long shots etc., Rice is a different mould, can be improved a lot by Pep for sure, needs to improve as well as WHU level is not enough at City.

on the other side he is hardly ever injured regularly did 34-36 PL games a season over last few seasons, personality fits in with what Txiki, Pep usally wants, does have some hunger for trophies and 24.5 years old, so we can keep him around once KDB, Rodri, Kovacic will be all above 32-33.
but still Bellingham would have been imo a much better profile and set of skills.

now with our interest public, best not to lose out to Arsenal tho.

try to include Phillips as well. or charge them separately 40m for him. WHU does need a replacement, so we need to ask Phillips stop with the I want to stay stories. :)

Grealish need to improve his outcome as we are going to lose about 8-10 goals from midfield with Gundogan leaving.

 

[VOOMER]

A lot of blues including myself were saying the same thing about Rodri, for me when you play for City it’s all about confidence, Phillips is just lacking a bit atm.

agreed 66 games to win the lot.

 

[Gingers Dad]

But, where will Rice play then?

After watching the end of season run in and the way that Rodri and Stones played I would say that he will share responsibilities with those two for running the midfield. I thought that neither played as a conventional 6 and they dovetailed perfectly getting forward or sitting back when necessary.
It's never just a straight forward starting 11 anymore. Rodri has been overplayed over the last two seasons and I thought he was running on empty in the two cup finals. Stones covered for him in the second half of the FA Cup final but he finally ran out out gas in Istanbul.
Knowing Pep he's probably already working on Rice's new role. Probably as fly keeper with Ederson getting forward more often.

 

[JewelZee]

not saying he is but hes not leaving neither. He might come good he might not i think some are harsh sometimes on a guy whos not really had the opportunity to prove himself. How many times have judgements been passed on the first season. Ake had similar issues in his first season.

I dont know whether phillips will end up good enough. But hes said hes not leaving so id rather get behind a player than constantly put someone down who we havent even had real time to judge.

Are you trying to impart some logic onto an internet expert? God bless you sir...

 

[harley]

A lot of blues including myself were saying the same thing about Rodri, for me when you play for City it’s all about confidence, Phillips is just lacking a bit atm.

Will pep give him any more time, I doubt it he may have not played much. Pep sees him most days and the reason he hasn't played is because he can't hack what's required of him

 

[Gingers Dad]

If we replace a goal scoring creative 8 with a bloke who has the turning speed of the Queen Mary then we're going to have to completely reinvent the way we play.

Losing Gundogan means we have to anyway, whoever comes in. It will be Pep's summer project

 

[flb]

Even the midlands have more European Cups than the eel munchers , that’s 13-2 in our favour North of Watford !