Lee Dixon & Roy Keane comment on Declan Rice’s performance for England

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West Ham United midfielder Declan Rice started for England during their win against Bulgaria on Saturday.

Lee Dixon and Roy Keane stated that West Ham midfielder Declan Rice must improve his game when he comes up against better opposition as they stated that he went ‘missing’ during England’s 4-0 win against Bulgaria on Saturday.

The ITV pundits made it clear that Rice is still ‘learning his trade’, as former Premier League midfielder Keane urged people to ‘go easy’ on the 20-year-old.

After first representing the Republic of Ireland, Rice then opted to switch allegiances to the country of his birth, and ever since then, he has been a regular under Gareth Southgate.

Speaking to ITV Sport (07/09/2019 at 7:10 pm), former Premier League winners Dixon and Keane shared their thoughts on Rice as a player and his recent performance for England.

“He’s still learning his trade,” Dixon told ITV Sport. “He’s still a young lad. When he first got into the side, he was doing that [defensive] job everything was fine. Now, he’s up against better opposition and he might think he needs to be elsewhere in helping out other players.

“He went missing a couple of time on their [Bulgaria’s] breaks trying to do things that are not his job, but that’s a learning process. Against the better opposition, he will be tested more and more often than he was tonight.

Keane added: “His strength, of course, is breaking things up. [Against Bulgaria] he got a lot of possession and perhaps that’s not one of his strengths. But he is still learning. He’s 20-years-old. You have got to kind of go easy on him and give him a chance to mature and learn the role.”

England have a number of players to choose from to play that holding role from Jordan Henderson to Tottenham’s Harry Winks.

Henderson played alongside Rice in the middle of the park against Bulgaria, with Chelsea playmaker Ross Barkley playing on the other side.

Rice will now turn his attention to Tuesday night where England will take on Kosovo before the London-born player returns to West Ham, who travel to Aston Villa next Monday.