Declan Rice led West Ham through tough season

West Ham fans like to think that we have a reputation for producing young talent, and Declan Rice is the best current example of that. Aside from his playing ability, he’s a tremendous character as well.

A lot of young players, at West Ham and other clubs, fail to make the most of their talent due to a poor attitude or a lack of willingness to learn. Declan Rice is probably the best example in recent years of a player coming through who isn’t quite the finished product, but doing everything he can to learn from those around him and taking it on board. The Rice we see today is a much better player than the one we saw breakthrough under Slaven Bilic, and that is a credit to the player.

Now an established international player, Rice gives off an air of control in much that he does whether that’s marshalling the defence or dictating the tempo of our attacks when he gets on the ball. If you watch West Ham regularly, you can’t ignore how much of an impact he has at both ends of the pitch. And this season he increased his stranglehold on the title of West Ham’s best player.

West Ham’s leading man

Being a defensive midfielder in a side struggling in the Premier League can’t be that fun. But Rice carries himself in such a way that he is full of joy when things go right for the side, which is great for the fans to see. It means that as he pushes himself into challenges, holds the ball against some of the best players in the world he is doing something that he loves. And that dedication to the game and the club shows in the performances.

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Everpresent in the Premier League this season, Rice leads the West Ham statistics on tackles and interceptions per 90% and second in passing success rate of 86% (1st on players who played over 1500 minutes). He played 3420 minutes, almost 700 more than second-placed Angelo Ogbonna, and only 9 other players managed more than half of those minutes for the season. Throughout every formation variation tried by different managers, he was the first name on the team sheet and his position was rightfully undisputed.

Rice added a memorable long-range goal against Watford to a season where he was usually one of the best two or three players on the pitch despite not being part of the team that took the 3 points away from the match. His 3 assists through the season all came in 2020, and it has become more of a feature of his game to see him cycling with the other central midfielder (most recently and most effectively Soucek) to take turns moving into attacking areas of the pitch and have an impact there as well as the shielding role he takes up.

Overlooked for YPOTY

When the shortlist for Young Player of the Year was announced I couldn’t believe that Declan Rice wasn’t on it. Not that I expect him to win it, for me Trent Alexander-Arnold has it in the bag given his contribution to a title win as convincing as Liverpool’s, but some of the others on the list just shouldn’t be there.

Mason Greenwood only played 1300 minutes in the league this season, and although that came to a very impressive 10 goals, for me it shows both the attacking and big club bias that the award has. There would never be a defender or defensive midfielder that only started 12 games that would be nominated. And Antony Martial and Jack Grealish shouldn’t even be eligible given that they’ll both be 25 before the year is out. But more to the point, Declan Rice is a superb player.

Using Whoscored to filter out all those who made fewer than 25 appearances and are not under 24, Declan Rice comes second in interceptions, third in tackles, 4th in passing success rate, in the top 10 for blocks per game, accurate short passes per game, as well as the bottom 10 for times dispossessed and most unsuccessful touches per game. Quite simply he is good at everything he needs to be good at to be a defensive midfielder. However, I must say that both Aaron Wan Bissaka and Wilfred Ndidi were also both overlooked given their prominence in those stats as well, once again highlighting the attacking bias that exists in deciding these awards.

But what can be certain is that if West Ham can keep hold of Declan Rice for the next couple of years we would have a complete gem of a player already, and who could still improve. He loves the club and despite the demand for him elsewhere, he has not made any noises about leaving for European football.

Yet. His level of play and ability should be on display in continental competitions, and unless we show that we’re capable of challenging for those places, we’re going to be waving goodbye to the spine of our side.