When England play two “defensive midfielders” as Gareth Southgate elected to do for Sunday’s EURO 2020 win over Croatia at Wembley, the howls of derision are not far behind.
Kalvin Phillips and Declan Rice both started the 1-0 opening win in Group D in a baking hot capital and, unsurprisingly, both midfielders were at the heart of most things good for the Three Lions.
Phillips was the best player on the pitch, setting up Raheem Sterling’s winner in the second half. Rice did what Rice does, provide that protective shield in front of the back four as he does so expertly with West Ham and showed why he is an automatic starter for his country pretty much every game.
Phillips sparkled thanks to Rice sitting deeper and allowing the Leeds man to express himself and effectively dictate the game from the middle of the park. Phillips effectively being the number ten position to play the through pass for Sterling’ goal demonstrated that.
With the Hammers securing Europa League football for the upcoming season, getting Rice away from east London is going to prove difficult. Chelsea’s interest in their former academy player, released at Cobham at the age of 14, is not exactly a secret.
After not making the grade in west London, he was swooped up by the east Londoners and has already racked more than 100 Premier League appearances in claret and blue by the age of 22.
He doesn’t score enough goals, he knows that, but those who have watched Rice regularly know that is not what he is in the side to do. His reading of the game and anticipation of what is happening around him is superb for a player still in the early stages of his career.
Not that you can tell as he always looks like the most experienced head on the field at times despite not turning 23 until next January.
With Rice slotted into the Chelsea side, you can only imagine what it could do for the likes of N’Golo Kante. Not only would it perhaps lighten his workload considerably, the most underrated aspect of his game - his forward passing - could be unleashed even more.
Knowing that he would have a safety net of Rice behind him would free up Chelsea’s truly world class player Kante. Rice isn’t a bad passer of the ball whatsoever himself, and that in turn would release even more so Mason Mount between the lines.
Kai Havertz too would benefit, to an extent Timo Werner as well, especially if Kante is freed up even more to make those little darts forward the Frenchman does every so often.
Frank Lampard is a huge fan of Declan Rice and links with a return to Stamford Bridge for the midfielder were never far away from the lips of the media at Lampard’s press conference.
In a Q&A for the Willow Foundation, Lampard said of Rice: “We are fortunate to have him in England. West Ham are fortunate to have him.
“He’s a leader and it is clear that he’s destined for great things.
“I have probably given it away with how I spoke about him, but I think it’s common knowledge that I was a big fan of his.
“It didn’t happen for various reasons, but we brought in a lot of players in the summer. But I was a big fan of his..
“For understandable reasons, West Ham know the player that they have on their hands.”
It’s not completely out of the question to say that if Rice hadn’t missed six of the last nine Premier League games with a knee injury during the run-in, West Ham would have seriously competed with Chelsea for the fourth-place spot in the Premier League.
Thomas Tuchel wants a new striker this summer, we all know that, but maybe his new priority could be to convince Rice to return to west London. Manchester United are also interested in the Hammers midfielder so there is competition for his signature.
But the Hammers hold all the cards. They don’t need to sell, have a European campaign next season, manager David Moyes has penned a new three-year deal at the club and there is a feel-good factor back in east London.
Rice is at the heart of that so getting him away from it will be far easier said than done.
