Graeme Souness’ latest attack on Declan Rice makes zero sense

Graeme Souness has doubled down on his bizarre criticism of Declan Rice.

The former Scotland and Liverpool midfielder called Rice “limited” during the World Cup, and suggested he is better suited to playing centre-back.

Arsenal fans largely ignored it and moved on, but now Souness has doubled down.

Speaking on Football Uncensored, pushing back against Piers Morgan’s claim that Rice “bossed” the Chelsea game, Souness said: “How many times do you see him as the last man with the ball? In the build-up, he’s last man. He’s sitting between two centre-halves or between the centre-half and the full-back. He’s last man. A lot of the time, he doesn’t play in midfield.”

He added, “He plays too deep to affect the game.”

Souness does concede that Rice is “the best defensive midfielder in the country”, but insists “he’s back there all the time” and therefore “not a midfield player.”

When Piers Morgan suggested Rice was one of the two or three best midfielders in the world, Souness bit back: “I’m not sure if he gets in Barcelona, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Man City. I’m not sure he does.”

He does. He walks into every single one of those teams. This isn’t a serious debate.

Why Graeme Souness’ criticism makes no sense

We had these conversations three or four years ago, before Declan Rice proved himself as the best midfielder in the Premier League.

The positioning argument is perhaps most egregious. Rice has played as a box-to-box midfielder for the most part since joining Arsenal, and has actually been more advanced than he arguably should be.

Recently, he has adopted a slightly deeper role but one that plays exactly to his strengths of — as Souness literally points out — being the best defensive midfielder in the country.

Rice covers ground at a rate that very few players on earth can match, and carries the ball up the pitch like a marauding horse. He wins tackles, intercepts passes, delivers set pieces and reads the game at an elite level.

But it’s his on-ball quality that bizarrely gets picked apart. ‘No football ability’, ‘only passes sideways’, etc etc. Well, only Elliot Anderson has more line-breaking passes per 90 than Rice so far this season. Myles Lewis-Skelly is the only midfielder in the league with a higher pass accuracy.

The “he plays too deep” criticism ignores the fact that his positioning is intentional and integral to how Arsenal function. The space he occupies protects the defence — the best in Europe, it’s worth adding — and allows the likes of Martin Odegaard and Bruno Guimaraes to play higher and more freely. That’s not a limitation.

Either way, Arsenal won’t be concerned about Souness’ opinion. And nor should their fans. Instead, the club will be focused on rewarding Rice with a new contract and winning more trophies together.

Ironically, yeah, Rice could probably be an incredible centre-back too. But he’s one of the best midfielders in the world. This really shouldn’t need saying in 2026.