Declan Rice has become one of the best midfielders in the world since joining Arsenal.
The England international was already a top-class player at West Ham United, but since he started working under Mikel Arteta, he has gone up a level.
Rice’s game has already seen evolution at Arsenal. He started as a six, was then transformed into a box-to-box number eight, and it looks like he is back in a deeper role again in recent games.
That is an intentional change, and Arteta has shed light on it now.
Mikel Arteta says Declan Rice will no longer be Arsenal’s ‘lighthouse’
Arsenal signed Declan Rice in a club-record £105 million deal in the summer of 2023.
The Gunners had to beat Manchester City in the race for his signature. It wasn’t easy, but Arteta convinced the midfielder to choose him over Pep Guardiola.
Soon after that, Arteta described Rice as a ‘lighthouse’, meaning a player who makes everyone around him and the team better.
“I see him like a lighthouse, that he is willing to put light in others and improve others and make the team better, and that is a huge quality,” the gaffer said in 2023.
That has worked incredibly well for Arsenal, but Arteta is all about evolution, and he has now hinted a change in role for his star midfielder.
He said, as per the club’s official website: “I went to him and said, and it’s a private conversation, but you are not the lighthouse anymore; you are something else.
“At the end of the season, I can tell you what, where I want to take him, but he’s not the lighthouse anymore. He’s something else, and he needs to prove that on the pitch.”
What could Mikel Arteta’s plan for Declan Rice be?
Arteta’s description of ‘lighthouse’ was the ability Rice possessed to make other players shine and improve them every time he is on the pitch.
That often took the spotlight away from the Englishman. Perhaps that is what the Arsenal manager wants to change by the end of this season.
Arteta’s plan could be to turn Rice into a more all-action midfielder than he already is. He can still continue to make others better, but he should start winning games for the club on his own with goals and assists.
Rice already has three assists to his name this season – none of which have come from a set piece. If he continues at the same rate, he will likely top the charts. That may well be what Arteta wants from him.