Enjoy your night, mate.
Declan Rice
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik and Imran hold a long overdue conversation about United's awful league form with 1 win in 7. They discuss a disappointing draw at Bournemouth, a not so disappointing draw against Liverpool and a crushing defeat at Chelsea - Is time nearly over for Erik Ten Hag?
Then in a special second half of the pod, Nik welcomes Natalie ( https://twitter.com/natalie_17) to discuss the fortunes of Manchester United Women as they booked a place in the FA Cup Final after a historic first ever win vs. Chelsea.
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Enjoy your night, mate.
Rice is an exceptionally promising player for his age playing in that position. Will he keep improving and become elite? That's the gamble. I think he'll go on and be a great player at a CL team, but it's not guaranteed.
Well Jesse is certainly convincing West Ham by the week but will it realistically open a door for this deal
Add me to the not totally convinced list as well. Assuming we get back to the level we want, playing that position for us is a different proposition than playing for West Ham.
He sweeps up effectively, I just don't see much penetration in his passes, or any real way in which he can hurt teams offensively. Even in the England set up he instantly seems less effective, just not sure about him.
He sweeps up effectively, I just don't see much penetration in his passes, or any real way in which he can hurt teams offensively. Even in the England set up he instantly seems less effective, just not sure about him.
he’s not thre to hurt teams. He’s a defensive mid ffs.
Comparing him to Robbo 
Feck me some people love to get carried away.
Feck me some people love to get carried away.
Do you see that from Rodri? Or Fabinho and Winjaldum?
Hang on, let’s for a second pretend Robbo hadn’t fractured his leg twice and broken his ankle by Rice’s age, this bolded can’t be fecking true. Rice has only 4 goals in his career
Edit: checked, of course it’s not fecking true, Robbo, one of the best box to box midfielders we’ve ever produced and a goalscoring one at that had massively outscored him at the same age. Goldy just making up stats again.
Edit 2: At age 22, Robbo played a major part in Albion finishing third in the top flight (played 41 of 42 games), their highest league placing for more than 20 years, and reaching the UEFA Cup quarter-finals.
So “achieved more” is also pretty wishy washy bollocks.
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I’m with you guys
Everyone creaming themselves over a decent defensive mid when what we need is a player who can compete or replace pogba depending on what happens this summer
he's a very good player
I'd be surprised if the posters who don't rate him had watched him play more than a few games
I wouldn't sign him for the money it'd take though, he's not that (£80m?) good
I'd be surprised if the posters who don't rate him had watched him play more than a few games
I wouldn't sign him for the money it'd take though, he's not that (£80m?) good
Of course he is, especially if we looking to shift Pogba. Ignoring some of the players we had only a decade ago like Scholes and Carrick who were brilliant at this from the same position, you only have to look at some of our performances with McTominay and Fred. It's easy to see why we struggle with players in the pivot who are too safe, too often. To his credit, McTominay has improved in his position quite a bit in the last couple of months though.
Yes, I do. All three are very good at beating the first line of press and shifting the ball to the higher midfielders/wide players. I'm not sure what your point is?
Just out of interest who do people think we should get for this position if not him
I like him but I think for our team he is only suitable as the anchor to a Pogba - Bruno - DM midfield partnership. Without Pogba it makes little sense to invest so much in him when the midfielder that makes having him necessary is walking out as he is coming in.
Given that we need to spend +£50m on a CB and another eye watering fee on a striker/winger I dont see how signing him at fees West Ham will likely demand would be feasible.
Given that we need to spend +£50m on a CB and another eye watering fee on a striker/winger I dont see how signing him at fees West Ham will likely demand would be feasible.
They are good at giving the ball to someone creative. But they are not good at creating. They do not offer much going forward.
Rice is also good at shifting the ball to the attackers. In fact, neither Rodri, Fabinho or Winjaldum is much more progressive than Rice. Probably a bit, but they are also in better teams.
Rice is actually more progressive than Rodri was in Spain.
Proper speechless I was, that is saying something for this placeComparing him to Robbo
Feck me some people love to get carried away.
It depends on what happens to Pogba for me.
The profile of midfielder we’d need changes depending on whether we have him in the squad or not.
A destructive CDM like Rice makes sense if we want to play Pogba next to him. It doesn’t make as much sense if it’s to partner him with Fred or McTominay IMO.
Yeah I think that's the key. We can forgive a limited passing range if he's got the ability to do alone what Fred and McTominay do together, because that will free us up to play with a more creative player next to him (eg Pogba if he stays or VDB if he comes good). I'm not saying I'm convinced on Rice, but that's what we're looking for.
So you are saying Pogba stays then we should be looking at bringing in a DM whereas if he leaves then need to target someone who is more creative in that area such as a DLP type player
80 million is far too much for him and I don't see how we end up paying that much for a DM in a pandemic year.
I was going to engage with this as well, but just realised how absurd it was arguing with such nonsense as I started to write my reply. You're a better man than me!Hang on, let’s for a second pretend Robbo hadn’t fractured his leg twice and broken his ankle by Rice’s age, this bolded can’t be fecking true. Rice has only 4 goals in his career
Edit: checked, of course it’s not fecking true, Robbo, one of the best box to box midfielders we’ve ever produced and a goalscoring one at that had massively outscored him at the same age. Goldy just making up stats again.
Edit 2: At age 22, Robbo played a major part in Albion finishing third in the top flight (played 41 of 42 games), their highest league placing for more than 20 years, and reaching the UEFA Cup quarter-finals.
So “achieved more” is also pretty wishy washy bollocks.
ha ha, to be fair my initial reply was just to doubt the most obvious part being bollocks due to Rice only having 4 career goals, but then I couldn’t help myself; hence the two edits.
Yeah that’s roughly what I think our situation is.
It’s the toughest area to improve - the issues elsewhere on the pitch (GK, back up RB, CB, RW, CF) all have obvious candidates to improve us; price would be the only issue.
It’s CM that is the real head scratcher for me because there isn’t an obvious solution regardless of price.
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Fantastic young player. His all round game is really improving.
Good player but Scott would look better than him in a West Ham shirt in the same way Jesse does. Said elsewhere when the expectation is not to get in a relegation battle and finish top half of the table, its massively different. Not saying he can't step up but I suspect he'll look above average in our shirt.
Just feels like he really divides opinion in this fanbase and wonder if there is actually anyone out there in this position that everyone agrees would be a significant upgrade
A Rice is Pogba stays, Neves if he leaves.
A Neves-McT/Fred midfield is tasty on paper.
You won't make it out of the newbies with this sort of stuff mate.
You know just for starters that England caps are juuust a little easier to get these days, right?
Agree with you.
I feel he'll be a touch of the Schneiderlin. Looks great for a lesser team, and quickly looks bang average here.
Good player but we would undoubtedly have to pay way over the odds to sign him and after watching the game today desperate for someone with better technical ability
Wait did someone actually say Rice is better than Robson? Not even the most die hard WHU fan would say that.
How can anybody watch our midfield yesterday and think yep, Declan Rice is the lad that’s gonna take it to the best midfields in Europe and control matches for us. Deary me.
More of the same to the tune of about £60 odd million. Get a hold.
More of the same to the tune of about £60 odd million. Get a hold.
Btw, how did Zakariaplay against RB?
We need a couple of midfield upgrades unfortunately, its not just one player fixes all, unless of course Pogba stays, stays fit and stays in form.
I have no idea. I’ve never seen him play in my life. Why do you ask?
Because he's a superior athlete and technically better.He would be cheaper for one
Nope, somebody said his style would remind you of Robson at thesame age; his timing, his off the ball movement, his ability to dictate the pace of a game.
Then somebody said: 'Don't be stupid comparing him to a legend.'
Then the original poster said, 'I'm not comparing him to a legend, I'm comparing him at the exact same age to the age Rice is now for the most fair comparison,' it was then pointed out than indeed Rice had achieved more by the same age in terms of goals, appearances and caps.
That's all.
Nobody said Rice is better than Robson; just that they share the same attributes and promise on the pitch at the same age.
But in RedCafe, that may well constitute a headline of RICE IS ALREADY BETTER THAN ROBSON EVER WAS
I think just putting the two of them in the same post is nuts!
Except didn't somebody then point out that that simply wasn't true, and the original poster (you) completely ignored that point?
Rice: 123 league appearances, 4 goals.
Robson: 118 league appearances, 21 goals.
These stats were taken from the end of the season so Rice has 12 games to score 18 goals to make your claim true. He does have more appearances, but Robson was close despite having broken his leg twice and broken his ankle by the same age.
Could United not convert McTominay into a DF Mid, he's a better passer of the ball than Rice, has a good engine just needs Matic or a decent coach like Fletcher to show him how to play the role.
We have tried, the coaches say they seem him as similar to Matic. He hides from the ball whenever he plays there so I think we have let him play his natural box to box role.
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