West Ham United starlet Declan Rice is enjoying a fantastic season in Manuel Pellegrini’s side.
Sir Trevor Brooking has lauded Declan Rice, but suggested that continuing to improve his forward passing is the key to the West Ham starlet maintaining his remarkable rate of development, in comments reported by 5 Live Sport.
Rice has enjoyed an outstanding season for the Hammers. His partnership with Mark Noble has made Manuel Pellegrini’s decision to use him as a midfielder look like a masterstroke, and he is unquestionably one of the most impressive youngsters in the Premier League.
And their performances as a pairing are one of the key reasons why West Ham go into the final portion of the campaign in the top-half of the table looking to catch seventh, rather than simply be focused on survival as they were just one year ago.
Rice is impressing on almost every occasion he steps out onto the pitch. And while Irons legend Brooking was full of praise for the academy graduate, he explained what he needs to focus on if he hopes to keep progressing at his current rate.
“Pellegrini likes to play with four at the back so Declan has come into that holding role. If you have a holding role, you want somebody there that, particularly the way that West Ham play when they’ve got everyone fit, now Lanzini – my favourite player – came back at the weekend and was excellent, if you can knock balls into him, that’s where the holding midfielder is the key,” he told 5 Live Sport.
“If you’re attacking player and you want to get the ball in good positions such as people like Lanzini, you do need that holding midfield player to place it between people and give you a chance to get them on the half turn and get at the defence. And that’s what Declan is getting better and better at. That forward passing is something which is developing all the time and I think if he can keep doing that, I can’t see anything, if he stays fit, stopping him progressing as he is.”
Rice’s progress has arguably set Pellegrini’s men a considerable challenge. There are plenty of Hammers fans who do not believe that the club will be able to keep the youngster in the long-term future as he is clearly destined for the very highest level of the game.
There may come a point when Rice feels that he needs to move on to continue progressing. But the Irons should focus on delaying that point for as long as possible by showing some ambition in the transfer market and looking at what looks set to be a promising finish in the league this term simply as a stepping stone for what is come under Pellegrini.
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