In a very up-and-down season, West Ham’s most valuable player, as per Sky Sports, has been named. It is not without a bit of controversy, but you cannot knock the decision at all.
Sky Sports’ drip-feed of content has seen West Ham’s MVP finally named and young midfield stalwart Declan Rice has been given the honours. It comes as no surprise that people on the outside of the club would recognize Rice as the MVP, and he has been excellent, but there is another name that should supersede him.
We’ll get to that shortly… Rice has been excellent this season, many times in losing efforts. The Hammers have not been consistent yet Rice is always running, tackling, and tracking back as much as possible to give his over-worked defence a break and to kick start offensive rushes.
Sky had this to say about Rice’s season so far,
"Declan Rice is one of nine outfield players to have played every minute in the Premier League this season and the youngest of those by some five years. The 21-year old has covered 317 kilometres, only Southampton’s James Ward-Prowse has more Premier League kilometres on the clock. Rice has also won possession in the middle third of the pitch 126 times this season; another Southampton man, Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, is the only player to outperform him in that metric. Along with his work rate and ball-winning skills, Rice also has an eye for a pass, having started 25 sequences which end in a shot for his team, 10 more than any other Hammer."
Not a bad breakdown, is it? Rice’s positional stats were also shown and he is tied for first in minutes played, second in distance covered, second for interceptions, and second for possession won in the middle third. Sky has aptly justified their decision for Rice, but West Ham supporters will tell you he isn’t the pic for Hammer of the year.
That honour goes to Angelo Ogbonna, and it would be close to a unanimous decision. The Italian defender has had a ridiculously underrated season, leading the centre-back group for Pellegrini and Moyes after losing his spot for the majority of last season. He’s resolute, strong, intelligent, and a menace in the air on both sides of the ball.
Without Rice, West Ham would be a shambles but the same goes for Ogbonna, hence why this decision isn’t miles off reality. Rice has been terrific and the paper talk around his potential transfer out of West Ham sees him as the popular vote in this arbitrary MVP race. That being said, it is close, but the Hammers’ best player has been 31-year-old Ogbonna on the back of his renaissance season.