Rio Ferdinand hits out at what he’s heard about Declan Rice

Declan Rice went into the tournament looking set to be one of the star men for Gareth Southgate’s side as they looked to take that final step which proved to be just a little too big for them years ago.

Of course, England could still get there, and the Arsenal record signing still has time to establish himself as one of the players of the tournament in Germany. But there is no question that England fans need to see a big improvement from their team.

Rice had one of his worst games for England against Denmark last time out. And with England toiling, there have been discussions about whether big changes are needed if the Three Lions are going to go far.

One of the questions put to Rio Ferdinand on his YouTube channel was whether Rice would be able to play as a lone six in the midfield, with the Trent Alexander-Arnold experiment seemingly not working.

It is safe to say that Ferdinand sees no reason at all why Rice could not play in that position on his own.

“He played every game until maybe the last eight, nine, 10 games of the season other than that, he was playing in the six, and everyone was raving about him. Everyone was saying we don’t hear about the £100 million price-tag, right,” he said.

“I didn’t hear no one digging him out about oh, he can’t receive the ball on the half-turn and he can’t play the ball through. He might not be a Busquets, he might not be maybe the way Rodri can play the ball through, but don’t tell me he can’t receive the ball off the back-four. If that was the case, we would have been saying that all season. No one said that.”