Moyes claims West Ham star is ‘carrying’ his teammates at the moment
There seems to be a vein of thought around West Ham United and in the media that Hammers midfielder Declan Rice has been struggling this season.
The 21-year-old has certainly been operating in a worse Irons team than in the previous couple of years.
However, for the most part it feels like his performances have stayed pretty consistent, despite the struggles of David Moyes’ side.
The Scot himself certainly feels that the England international has remained at or very close to his level from last season.
“In my mind he is arguably the best holding midfield player in the country and the best thing about Declan is he will get better,” he said, as per the Daily Star.
“Declan is carrying a lot of the team at the moment and he’s the one who will carry on from Mark Noble when it comes to an end for him.
“Quite often when building a club you have to sell. I hope it’s not the case with Declan but I said the same with Wayne Rooney and Joleon Lescott [at Everton]. But the team got better because we were able to sign the right players to replace them. If that ever came around [Rice leaving] I’d hope we’d be able to do the same here as well.”
Has Rice been carrying his teammates this campaign?
First of all, Rice is not the best holding midfielder player in England. Moyes is obviously forgetting the likes of N’Golo Kante, Fernandinho and Fabinho.
However, he is very good, and he’s still been solid this term. If you look at his statistics, he’s actually been extremely similar in his play compared to last season.
He’s averaging 3.1 tackles and two interceptions per game, compared to 2.9 and 1.5 last time out.
Meanwhile, he’s averaging 47.6 passes an outing with a success rate of 87.3%, with 44.6 and 86.4% last season. His WhoScored rating per game is essentially the same, 6.94 now as opposed to 6.93 last campaign.
Carrying his teammates, though? That feels like something of a stretch. He’s obviously not done a good job, then, looking at the team’s position in the Premier League table.
In other West Ham news, Moyes has claimed that a senior Hammers star could leave the club in the coming days.