By Hughie Southon
England may have crashed out of the World Cup but one player who can take immense pride from the tournament is Declan Rice.
From Match One he was on the case and looks more and more like a future England captain as he progresses through the game.
England – Harry Kane’s missed penalty aside – can probably count themselves unfortunate to lose a game when they and the French looked not a million miles apart in terms of quality and craft.
Declan, at the heart of midfield was again outstanding, breaking up opposition attacks and getting things moving.
He was roundly applauded by the media sources in their rating and both the Telegraph and Guardian gave him eight out of ten with the former ‘paper declaring he put in a brilliant performance.
Every Hammer will be incredibly proud of a young man who has emerged from the academy to world stardom and wherever he may go next will always be seen as one of our own.
Well done Dec – brilliant stuff.
But for that missed spot kick who knows where you might be this morning.
Yes indeed, well done Declan! It’s just a pity that such a promising England campaign fell short yet again.
I think England have an over reliance on caution, an over reliance on set pieces and an over reliance on milking for penalties. They were the better team in all the stats except where it matters – goals scored. And unfortunately they were not good enough to score a goal in open play. Incredible but true. Goals win games and England’s pedestrian and over cautious approach was not good enough to win against a team in the top ten FIFA rankings. With all the obvious talent within the team it is very disappointing!
And so we look forward to resuming our campaign in the Premier League. Let’s hope David Moyes can see how Gareth Southgate’s somewhat negative tactics have not worked. Who dares wins, David!