‘The manager pulled me’: West Ham ace says Moyes almost played him in another position recently

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Speaking on The Overlap, Declan Rice has been discussing his best position and his transition from being a defender to being a midfielder.

Cast your mind back to a few years ago, and you will remember Rice breaking into the West Ham first-team as a centre-back, but these days, he’s one of the best midfielders in the Premier League.

However, despite Rice establishing himself as a dominant midfielder, he says that David Moyes recently spoke to him about moving back to centre-half as the Hammers continue to have problems in their defence.

What’s Rice said?

The England international spoke about his position.

“I’ve always known I’ve had this ability, but it’s about having the confidence and putting it into place. At the moment I’m happy in midfield, but I will never complain if I have to go back to centre-back. The manager pulled me the other day, Dawson might not have made the game, so I was going to play centre-half, he made the game no problem at all, it’s a different game to midfield, but maybe one day when I’m older and my legs have gone I might go back to centre-half, but I’m loving this midfield role at the minute,” Rice said.

Great option to have

Rice is certainly better served playing in the midfield, but it’s good to have the option of playing him at centre-half.

West Ham have had plenty of problems in that position this term. Angelo Ogbonna is out until the end of the season, Kurt Zouma has had plenty of injury issues, while Issa Diop’s form has been rather poor.

The fact that Rice is able to fill in at the back is a real bonus for West Ham.