Declan Rice is again in the news for the wrong reasons but his his growing confidenceinternational player appears to be giving him the confidence to react.
After revealing his family and himself had received unpleasant threats from social media keyboard warriors, he is now responding to those who are criticising his game.
He has been getting stick as he bids to make the English defensive midfield position his own with many complaining that he is giving the ball away too easily and on one occasion last night that led to a goal.
Meanwhile from the tabloids to the broadsheets he was given a mark of around 6 suggesting that he wasn’t perhaps as bad as some armchair critics would like to suggest.
But after being trolled on Twitter where a guy going under the name of Matt tweeted: Litte tip mate, don’t pass the ball to the opposition.”
The reality is that like many who take regular knocking from Twitter he may have been better off ignoring it given that most are seeking a reaction.
But the 20 year old chose instead to take up the issue and defend himself saying: “We all make mistakes, part and parcel of the game. I will learn from it & improve.”
Success has come fast to Declan and that – as is the case generally – always creates a negative reaction among some – but he may be better off by another little tip and simply ignore those trying to get under his skin.”
Love the guy – but we have to accept he was poor in the second half last night, not the only one mind.. I only read the BBC vote ratings and he was third last with an average of 4.6, just Maguire and Keane behind him.
He doesn’t seem to look the same for England, seems to make so many short nothing passes.
Hope he learns fr0m it, seems the kinda kid who will.
There is an irony in all this. Roy Keane giving him stick (maybe because he’s Irish ) Ian Wright moaned because on one clear occasion he didn’t play Stirling in against Bulgaria and yes last night he made a slack pass that gave Kosovo the ball, but it wasn’t exactly in front of goal being in midfield unlike Keane’s or Maquire’s errors and he was not the only player defending against it.
So he made a mistake and it seems to be ‘have a pop at Rice’ time for his error.
Kane missed a pen and Stirling hit the post , they are also mistakes but is anyone having a go at them. With Henderson and Barkley either side of him and both wanting to play it about and Maguire wanting to push up, Declan must gain an understanding of where he fits in, but I agree perhaps he should be a bit more adventurous himself sometimes, but what has Southgate asked him to do?
Give him a break, he is coming along very well
I guess the important thing is, it really doesn’t matter about the critics.
As Southgate clearly recognises how good he is, which why is has giving him two full 90 mins.
I agree he should just keep away from all this social media rubbish but reading the headline, I was guessing he’d made a unwise remark. However true to his character, he still replied in a professional and respectful manner. Declan is a class act and will hopefully rise above it.