West Ham Supporters Split on Declan Rice at Centre-back

Injuries and COVID-19 results have pushed the West Ham first team around a bit ahead of Wolves, providing an almost even split in the usage of Declan Rice.

The background: West Ham have had two positive player tests for Coronavirus with Josh Cullen and Issa Diop forced into isolation with their asymptomatic positive results prior to the Carabao Cup match against Hull.

To add to this, Mark Noble is back fit from his toe injury that has kept him out since the opening match loss to Newcastle United. With player gaps in centre-back and central midfield dept, a virtual David Moyes has some serious decisions to make about his defence and midfield player selections.

Rather than asking ‘Should Declan Rice play at centre-back against Wolves’ the question should really be: Do you prefer Mark Noble or Fabian Balbuena in your starting XI against Wolves. The answer to that question for Moyes will dictate where Rice ends up.

For supporters, determining where Rice should play looks to be a bit of a toss-up:

At the time of writing this, the nay-sayers have the vote with 54.7% while the yes-men sit at 45.3%. It is not an easy decision because accepting moving Rice to centre-back as he did last season against Wolves means the Hammers will have a resolute defender in their backline but is the cost of hollowing out your midfield worth it?

Suspecting Moyes selects the same formation, a 5-2-3 set up, a backline of Masuaku – Cresswell – Ogbonna – Rice – Fredericks can be suspected. With the speed of those wingbacks, having Rice and his pace at centre-back makes sense. Realistically, the weak spot is Cresswell at left centre-back, not newcomer Rice.

This would leave Tomas Soucek in his natural midfield position with Mark Noble beside him in what should be a double pivot. Now, can Noble be trusted to sit deep and allow Soucek to be the box-to-box midfielder out of the duo?

Realistically, the best team available for West Ham right now is probably a back three of Ogbonna – Rice – Balbuena with Soucek and Noble in the midfield, but the reluctance to use Balbuena and the shoehorning in of Cresswell at any chance makes this team unlikely to be picked. It’ll be interesting to see just how trusting Moyes is of a Rice-less midfield come Sunday.