Like too many of his international teammates, Declan Rice has not been at his very best level at Euro 2024. Too few times has he been able to surge forward in possession. He’s winning fewer duels per 90 minutes, has been successful in fewer aerial challenges and has been dispossessed more often in Germany than he did during the Premier League season with Arsenal.
Of course, there’s another difference, too, which makes the above comparisons both eye-opening and irrelevant all at once: he’s not playing the same role for England as he does for the Gunners, so why would he achieve the same things?
Indeed, that seems to be a theme this summer in the Three Lions’ camp. Kieran Trippier and Trent Alexander-Arnold were both right-back all year for their clubs, if in different ways. Neither are with England. Phil Foden is playing on the opposite flank. Ezri Konsa’s only minutes so far have come in the one back line position he doesnt play. And Rice, well, Rice’s position is still central midfield, but he’s operating under very different roles and instructions and instead of a safety net behind him, he largely is the safety net.
While there shouldn’t really at this stage be too much discussion about players not being able to operate outside of a single method or in a single area of the pitch, it does give rise to a series of questions including why some are picked, others aren’t and a particular system utilised if it’s not getting the best out of any of them.
But while England are now at the point of improve-or-go-home having had the most latest of escapes and loudest of warnings against Slovakia, and while they need to be obviously better in the final third specifically, it’s Rice and his own performance which might hold the biggest key to their chances.
And for the reason why, he only needs look to his predecessor at the Emirates.
Granit Xhaka spent a long time at Arsenal and was an important overall player for them, but he had limitations. Frequently they were regarding mentality and consistency, rather than any question over his physical or technical acumen.
Back in the Bundesliga, though, he has been a man transformed. Perhaps it’s general maturity of getting older, which came to him late if so. Perhaps it’s the words of wisdom from Xabi Alonso in his ear, the finest former midfield mentor he could wish for giving him clear pointers of where improvements could still come in his game.
Or maybe it’s just the surroundings he’s in, the determination he has and the prizes on offer which have taken him to clear new heights with Bayer Leverkusen – and now too with the Switzerland national team.
Among midfielders at the Euros so far, perhaps only Rodri and Toni Kroos can claim to have been consistently at or near their best level in the way Xhaka has, and they of course have greater quality around them, more poise and elite qualities to their game.
And now he will go up against Rice, signed upon his own departure at Arsenal and – even if he didn’t appear initially intended to directly replace him – filling Xhaka’s old role. It’s one thing to compare Rice with a different Rice, but at Euro 2024, English Rice and Swiss Xhaka are doing rather more similar jobs, but one is faring much better than the other.
It’s Xhaka who has been the bigger goal threat and creative force so far, for example, but again there’s the disclaimer of Rice not having the extra defensive presence behind him that Xhaka does, particularly with a three-man Swiss defence.
But if the former Arsenal man has been unleashed a little more, the current Gunner is not necessarily starring more defensively. He’s certainly not impacting matches enough even away from the numbers: raising the tempo, directing those in front of him, keeping England on the front foot and making regains further upfield – all the things Xhaka does for Switzerland. That hasn’t happened with Rice in deeper areas, regardless of who has been alongside him from the three trialled there so far.
As a result, Rice and Xhaka are likely to go head-to-head in the encounter, over and over again, fighting for individual supremacy to in turn give their team it.
England, simply put, must do far better in that regard than they have so far. One reprieve against a distinctly second-tier side is all they’ll get; Switzerland are better, more cohesive and have more individuals in fine form. It’s time for Rice to make his mark on the tournament, or Xhaka and co will end it.