England’s Declan Rice offers rebuke to ‘harsh’ Graeme Souness criticism

Declan Rice has responded to “harsh” criticism from Graeme Souness by saying that the Sky Sports pundit cannot have watched him much if he thinks that the England international does not do enough to be regarded as a top midfielder.

Souness made his case by arguing that world-class midfielders must do three things well: defend, offer creativity and score goals. The former Liverpool midfielder said Rice only has one standout quality – his ball-winning ability – and he was backed up by Roy Keane before Manchester United beat West Ham in the fifth round of the FA Cup earlier this month.

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“It’s harsh,” Rice said. “I think it’s harsh because Souness doesn’t watch West Ham every week. There’s loads of West Ham fans, 60,000 go every week, and see what I do. To say I’m only good at one of three is harsh. But Souness was a top midfielder and when someone like him speaks you have to sometimes listen and take on board where you can improve if that’s true.”

Rice, who will start when England open their Euro 2024 qualifying campaign by facing Italy in Naples on Thursday, has always been eager to improve. He spoke in respectful terms about Keane. The former United captain coached Rice while the 24-year-old was part of the Republic of Ireland set-up.

“Roy as well, he’s said some glowing things about me in the past and sometimes some things I can improve as well,” Rice said. “You take it with a pinch of salt and try not to let it affect you.

Italy (4-3-3): Donnarumma; Di Lorenzo, Tolói, Acerbi, Spinazzola; Barella, Jorginho, Verratti; Berardi, Retegui, Pellegrini

England (4-3-3): Pickford; Walker, Stones, Maguire, Shaw; Phillips, Rice, Bellingham; Saka, Kane, Foden

Representing England offers Rice a chance to forget about West Ham’s relegation battle. He revealed that he has tried to deal with it by taking himself off social media.

“I try not to read too much,” he said. “I don’t really know about anything that’s going on in the world at the minute because I’ve come off all that social media stuff. I couldn’t tell you who’s playing. Someone really close to me said the other week I always look at other clubs in terms of fixtures and results and they just said we can only worry about ourselves.”

Rice, who is expected to leave West Ham this summer, understands criticism of his performances this season. “It’s about these two fixtures for England and when I get back to West Ham it’s about playing the best I can to get us out the relegation battle and win the Europa Conference League,” he said.

“My club performances are probably getting looked at more because of where we are in the league. Being captain my performances are scrutinised more, which I can take on the chin. There probably have been some games recently where I probably haven’t been at my best but there have been other games where I have been at my best.”

The Italy midfielder, Marco Verratti, tipped Rice to reach the top. “I really like him,” Verratti said. “He provides great balance to the team and has wonderful physical attributes. I’m sure he’ll end up at a top side.”