Troy Deeney has added his voice to those defending Declan Rice against Graeme Souness' criticism.
The West Ham United captain was criticised by the former Liverpool and Scotland star when in his column for the Daily Mail last month, Souness said that to be a top midfielder you have to be able to defend, create goals and score goals, adding that Rice is only good at defending and that he can see the Hammers star turning into a centre-back later on in his career.
Former Hammers coach Stuart Pearce commented on the Rice situation this week, saying Rice should take what Souness said as a compliment while the player himself said while on international duty with England that the criticism was 'harsh'.
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Rice went on to score the opener for England vs Italy in the 2-1 win on Thursday night and ex-Premier League striker Deeney used Chelsea's N'Golo Kante and Man City's Rodri's as examples of midfielders who don't score many but are considered world class - something he believes Rice is.
“I thought Graeme Souness’ criticism of Declan Rice was quite harsh,” he said in his column for The Sun. “Graeme’s opinion is that to be a world-class midfielder, you need to create and score more goals. He feels Declan does not do that.
“But you can rattle off loads of names who don’t score loads — N’Golo Kante, Casemiro, Rodri, Thomas Partey and Toni Kroos to name a few.
“For me, Declan is world class. This kid plays so many games a year and is still a young man getting used to that.”
Rice could feature for England on Sunday when the Three Lions welcome Ukraine to Wembley in a Euro 2024 qualifier.
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