Declan Rice is already considered one of the best midfielders in the world.
Since arriving from West Ham for a fee of around £105m in 2023, Rice has been going from strength to strength, with perhaps the biggest compliment you could give him being the fact that nobody even mentions his price tag.
Whether it be the ball-winning tendencies he immediately added to the Arsenal squad upon his arrival, the more complete box-to-box qualities unlocking his ball carrying which were further unlocked later on or the elements of midfield control he’s added recently, Rice is constantly adding new weapons to his Arsenal.
So what exactly is new this season, after the signing of Bruno Guimaraes and a tweak to Rice’s role at the back end of last season?
In this article, we’ll cover
Rice’s new role
At the start of last season, Rice was often partnered in midfield by Martin Zubimendi, a more natural deep-lying midfielder when it comes to controlling the tempo, dropping deep and getting touches to orchestrate the build-up.
This meant that while Zubimendi often dropped deeper, Rice was more free to make runs into the left pocket, be a little more advanced and receive between the lines.
However, with Zubimendi falling out of favour in the second half of the season, Arteta began to tinker once again, changing Rice’s role to something similar we are seeing this season.
Instead of rotating between the pivot where Rice was tasked to receive with his back to play and the left half space where Rice was tasked with receiving on the half turn or in tighter spaces, the midfielder’s new role saw him dropping into the last line in-possession.
From here, Rice was able to face play, suiting his build-up qualities better where he isn’t under pressure from behind, allowing him to see the game and play forward more progressivley.
Another advantage of this positioning was the rest defence and defensive qualities of Rice, who was now naturally deeper in the case of turnovers, allowing him to defend transitions and put out fires.
But despite finding himself in a more reserved role now, Rice has still managed to add further to his offensive toolkit from this position.
Assist king
So far this season, Rice has provided five assists in the Premier League, more than any other player in the league, with the next highest currently Evanilson and Pascal Gross tied with four each.
We already saw Rice begin to pick up more and more assists in the past few seasons, largely from his increible set-piece deliveries, which Nicolas Jover was utilising to the best of his ability.
But so far this season, none of his five assists have come from a set-piece, with all five coming from open play.
Where Rice is now often facing play with more time on the ball to get his head up against deeper opposition defences, the English midfielder has began to thrive more when it comes to his progressive passes and finding players between the lines or around the top of the box.
Against Chelsea, it was Rice who decided to play back towards the right after receiving the ball from that side, playing against the opposition momentum instead of taking the easy option to recycle and move the ball in a U-shape towards the left. It was from this that Kai Havertz scored the equaliser against his former club.
Against Sunderland, Rice received at the top of the box with plenty of bodies behind the ball, shaping up like he was going to play a ball into the box, before using the outside of his foot to just tap it to the side, setting Guimaraes for the shot, which he scored to put Arsenal 1-0 up against Sunderland.
Rice has picked up a few assists from these scenarios where he is facing play and is able to play against the opposition’s momentum this season, but his best new weapon has come from a combination of his new positioning mixed with his natural athleticism and dynamic quality.
Arriving from deep
Midfielders who can arrive from deep positions are extremely difficult to pick up, as instead of being a static reference further forward, their run starting from a deeper position allows them to catch the opposition off guard, running off of their marker and gathering momentum for the defenders who will have to deal with them.
Rice being the athlete that he is, has began to utilise his ability to arrive from deep to destabilise defensive units and get himself into dangerous areas where he can impact the game in the final third.
A brilliant example of this was Rice’s goal against Bayern to equalise late in the game. The England international found himself in that temporary right centre-back position in Arsenal’s 3-1-6 shape, receiving the ball from Ezri Konsa and looking to engage players down Bayern’s left flank.
As he advanced with the ball, Alphonso Davies went to apply pressure to Rice on the ball, which saw Rice quickly move the ball out to Noni Madueke on the right. But Rice didn’t stop there, he continued his run into the Bayern Munich defensive block, with Saka then finding a first time pass into Viktor Gyokeres, who touched it off for Rice to arrive with momentum, take it in his stride and smash it across goal to make it 2-2.
Rice’s assist against Liverpool showcased a similar ability to arrive from deep effectively, this time not in a settled possession phase, but instead after an opposition turnover.
After Arsenal forced a turnover with their press against Liverpool, Rice had a good view of the picture devloping infront of him.
With Jurrien Timber deeper on the right marking Bradley Barcola, Rice saw the opportunity to provide support to Madueke as he received the ball in a 1v1 against Milos Kerkez.
Rice made a huge arching run to go around Madueke, provide the overlapping run, which Trey Nyoni had to try and pass on, but Barcola wasn’t within distance to track either, leaving Kerkez in a 1v2.
As Rice arrived around Madueke, the winger found a nicely weighted pass into his path, allowing Rice to get his head up and whip it across the six yard box, finding Havertz who slotted it home to make it 1-0.
Teams are finding it difficult to deal with Rice’s runs from deeper areas this season, especially when combining down that right side, but the English midfielder also has the quality of his final action once he arrives there, making it devastating as we’ve already seen early on this season.