{"id":1232556,"date":"2021-11-09T16:55:55","date_gmt":"2021-11-09T16:55:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/?p=1232556"},"modified":"2021-11-09T16:55:55","modified_gmt":"2021-11-09T16:55:55","slug":"rio-ferdinand-declan-rice-best-midfielder","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/rio-ferdinand-declan-rice-best-midfielder\/","title":{"rendered":"Rio Ferdinand: Declan Rice is the best midfielder in the country"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Rio Ferdinand has labelled Declan Rice the \u201cbest midfielder in the country\u201d after the England international\u2019s stellar start to the campaign with West Ham.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The 22-year-old has been ever-present after 11 games for the Hammers in the Premier League, as David Moyes&#8217; men currently sit third in the table heading into the third international break of the season.<\/p>\n<p>The club&#8217;s matchday captain, Rice has been the very heartbeat of West Ham&#8217;s midfield alongside partner in crime Tomas Soucek, with the duo working well in tandem to fire the Hammers up the table.<\/p>\n\n<p>Rice has also been a huge part of the club&#8217;s European campaign, with Moyes already masterminding qualification from Group H of the Europa League, while the east Londoners are through to the League Cup quarter-finals, having eliminated both Manchester clubs.<\/p>\n<p>It has been a season of breathtaking football and huge results, but the biggest arguably came on Sunday as Moyes&#8217; men put Liverpool to the sword with a 3-2 win at the London Stadium, their first triumph over the Merseyside club at their new ground.<\/p>\n<p>Rice was once again pivotal in that triumph over Jurgen Klopps&#8217; Reds, forming the backbone of Moyes&#8217; XI, and following the contest in E20, former West Ham defender Ferdinand was quick to lavish praise on the central midfielder.<\/p>\n<p>He told his <a class=\"class\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=7u-4XcRMFaI\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer noopener\"><em>Vibe with Five<\/em><\/a><span>\u00a0podcast: &#8220;He has arguably been the best midfielder in the country.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Declan Rice\u2019s for West Ham vs. Liverpool: <\/p>\n<p>91% pass accuracy <br \/>47 touches <br \/>10 ball recoveries (most)<br \/>6 duels won (=most) <br \/>5 tackles (most) <br \/>3 accurate long balls<br \/>1 interception <\/p>\n<p>Another superb performance. ? <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/gZ1I2D2bEG\">pic.twitter.com\/gZ1I2D2bEG<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Squawka (@Squawka) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Squawka\/status\/1457417100201447425?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">November 7, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He has dominated games, he has played with maturity. The Euros, something&#8217;s clicked in him different.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;His game management, the way he can change the pace of a game at times, we saw that at Newcastle earlier in the season. He&#8217;s added goals now. There&#8217;s a maturity in his game for one so young that he&#8217;s got levels still to go.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Despite previously suggesting Manchester United should try to buy Rice off the Hammers, Ferdinand believes the academy product has no reason to leave the club at the minute.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">How much is Declan Rice worth?<\/p>\n<p>David Moyes said this before we shared his stats. ? <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/mb6LdaquYL\">pic.twitter.com\/mb6LdaquYL<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Squawka (@Squawka) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Squawka\/status\/1454884123827343361?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 31, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>He added: &#8220;Why&#8217;s he going to want to leave West Ham right now? They&#8217;re third in the league. For anyone to prise him out of West Ham they&#8217;re going to have to pay big money.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s the problem anyone is going to have now because they probably could have got him for I don&#8217;t know if they really pushed the boat out and went \u00a350 or 60 million in the summer.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Moyes said at the weekend &#8211; \u00a3100 million and you&#8217;re still probably going to get a no. I don&#8217;t know if that was tongue-in-cheek but that&#8217;s what he said.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rio Ferdinand has labelled Declan Rice the \u201cbest midfielder in the country\u201d after the England international\u2019s stellar start to the campaign with West Ham. The 22-year-old has been ever-present after 11 games for the Hammers in the Premier League, as David Moyes&#8217; men currently sit third in the table heading into the third international break&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":1232559,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_focuskw":"","_yoast_wpseo_title":"","_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"Rio Ferdinand has labelled Declan Rice the \u201cbest midfielder in the country\u201d after the his stellar start to the campaign with West Ham.","footnotes":""},"tags":[],"news-category":[],"class_list":["post-1232556","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":{"external_featured_image_url":"","hide_featured_image_pattern":false},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.1 (Yoast SEO v27.1.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Rio Ferdinand: Declan Rice is the best midfielder 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