David Moyes had admitted he is concerned about West Ham becoming too reliant on Declan Rice after the midfielder put in another star turn in the Premier League.
Rice was superb in the Hammers midfielder as the Hammers secured successive 1-0 wins either side of the international break, beating Sheffield United at Bramall Lane to move to within four points of the top four.
The midfielder has played every single minute of the top flight campaign so far, one of four players to do so alongside fellow midfield partner Tomas Soucek, defender Aaron Cresswell and goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski who have all tallied 810 minutes of action heading into a packed December schedule with six fixtures on the horizon.
Rice has skippered the side for the past seven matches with Mark Noble seeing less action due to injuries and also team selection. When Noble came on in added time against Sheffield United, he didn’t take the armband off Rice.
Arguably there were more important things on Noble’s mind like keeping the ball in the corner and earning a set piece to kill the clock, which he successfully managed to do.
Rice has come in for ridiculous criticism, especially in an England shirt, where football fans who don’t watch West Ham on a regular basis can’t see what he brings to the team. That’s understandable as a Manchester United fan isn’t going to sit down and watch every Hammers match but it is incredibly misguided.
Still, he scored his first goal in an England shirt in the Nations League win over Iceland to keep those detractors quiet as well.
One person who is fully aware of how important and how good Rice is playing is his manager Moyes, who spoke about the 21-year-old after his fantastic outing against the Blades.
“The role, his responsibility he takes on the pitch because of his young age, his leadership qualities will build,” Moyes said.
“He has learned from Harry Kane, Mark Noble - I really think he is doing a great job as a player and we are building up hope that he will be an outstanding captain.
"My bigger concern - and I know he is young - would be that I don't want us to rely too heavily on him. But you would have to say that Tomas Soucek as well is doing a great job.”
Rice, who turns 22 in January, is consistently linked with a move away from West Ham back to his former side Chelsea, who released him from their academy setup as a 14 year old with Rice heading across the capital to east London where he has made a major name for himself.
Rice has said on plenty of occasions that he is not looking for a move away from the Hammers, who gave him the chance and are now reaping the benefits of that having tied him down to a five-year contract in 2018 with the option of a further year.
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