As below your post, you have to consider the price tag. I rate both players & would love to have them but blowing the majority of our budget on one player is nonsensical.
His personal timeline is slightly ahead of ours, he’s ready for a step up where as we need to dismantle & start all over again. I think as a fanbase we need to take a step back & realise a few of the best talents are out of our remit currently. I hate to do it but look at Liverpool, VvD was the icing - we’ve a ways to go before we’re at the marquee signing point.
Whilst I do agree on the price tag being a big consideration, and the analogy with VVD. The key difference is age for me. Van Dijk is at his peak at the same time as the rest of that Liverpool squad, and I'd expect Rice to be at that level in 2 or 3 years meaning we could build with him.
I'm fully in favour of some cheaper signings that fit the style of play, but that DM is absolutely key for me and I believe it's key for the way Ten Hag will want to play.
His DM at the moment regularly switches between DM and CB either stepping out from defence or dropping back from midfield and Rice would be perfect there. I also think he'd make a lot of our current players look a lot better, for instance...
Fred - He's very Kante-lite. Not amazing on the ball, but lots of energy to close players down. Not the best positional sense hence why neither work as the sole DM. Just to clarify as I know it will get called out, I'm not saying Fred is as good, but that he has similar qualities. With a DM like Rice he'd have more license to close down more without worrying as much about the space behind & he'd have license to get forward more were we've seen his dribbling can be effective at times.
Maguire & Varane - Neither have looked solid this season and we regularly concede from Maguire stepping forward to close someone down that really should be the job of the defensive midfielder. Just look at his positioning for almost all the goals against Liveroool, he's regularly caught in front of his other defenders as he has midfielders running at him with no protection in front.
As much as I'd like us to replace Fred and Maguire it isn't going to happen straight away and we'll have to tailor our gameplan to work with what we have in some areas.