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Arsenal midfielder Declan Rice has hit back at the criticism that has come the club’s way after the work Mikel Arteta has done to toughen his players up and improve their approach to set pieces.
For so many years, Arsenal were ridiculed for being a team without a Plan B, and for being too much of a soft touch against physical opponents who tried to exploit their weaknesses from set pieces.
Nothing could be further from the truth when it comes to this physically imposing team Arteta has put together, which seems a lot more streetwise and ready to dig in than a lot of the players from the latter part of Arsene Wenger’s reign.
And yet, there has still been criticism of the Gunners, with some pundits clearly now feeling they’ve taken things too far as they played very defensively away to Manchester City last week, even if that was likely also influenced by being down to ten men for the entire second half.
Mikel Arteta and Declan Rice (Photo by Marc Atkins/Getty Images)
Rice defends Arsenal tactics amid criticism
Rice, however, is having none of it, with the England international giving some insight into the internal discussions the players have about how to deal with their opponents, and insisting that it’s just something normal that other teams do as well.
“Obviously with the game schedule, it is really tough to get onto the grass and really practice, so we just have internal discussions about what we are going to do,” Rice said, as quoted by the Metro.
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“Look, there is always going to be conversations about us blocking and making fouls, but I think the goals we have scored from set-pieces this season, I don’t think there has been one foul involved.
“Sometimes people look for a foul or people are mentioning that we are cheating in a way on set-pieces because we are blocking, but it’s part of the game.
“Teams do it to us and we are just trying to…
Source link : https://www.caughtoffside.com/2024/09/30/declan-rice-defends-arsenal-tactics-amid-criticism/
Author : Mark Brus
Publish date : 2024-09-30 09:17:49
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