Thing is, if Rice comes into a midfield completely remade in the system, it’s not really fair to judge him on what came before. He’s not come in and replaced Xhaka in a double pivot system, he’s come in and been put as a single pivot with an 8 in front of him, in Havertz, who is about as lightweight and defensively useless as an 8 can be. Essentially doing the job for two. It’s going to leave him exposed a lot. For Arsenal’s sake I don’t like that they’ve changed their system. It doesn’t make much of any sense to me.
If I was Arteta, I would be playing Jorginho as the playmaking 6, Rice as the box to box 8 in a busied double pivot system, and Odegaard as the 10. Havertz would provide cover in the 10 position and across the forward line.
To me, that Jorginho, Rice, Odegaard midfield would be exceptionally well balanced. A superb passing range and game reading from Jorginho, a very complete box to box midfielder in Rice - a real midfield general - and one of the best 10s in world football. Seems so obvious to me. You’ve then got Partey who can cover the Jorginho/Rice positions, and Havertz for the Odegaard role. Very well balanced, and real depth. I just don’t understand this Rice, Havertz, Odegaard set up. It’s changing the system from something that was really successful last year, it’s making them more defensively vulnerable, and it’s limiting the impact of their record signing. Rice as a 6/8 hybrid (box to box), is an amazing player. Rice as a sitting 6, is a good player.
Seems so self limiting, this notion.