Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca has drawn a clear line between Mois\u00e9s Caicedo and Declan Rice, arguing that the two are not comparable because of how their positions and responsibilities have evolved.<\/p>\n
Maresca, who worked with Rice during an 18-month spell assisting Manuel Pellegrini across 2018 and 2019, emphasised the context of his earlier time with the England international. \u201cIt was a little bit different time when I was at West Ham ,\u201d he said. \u201c[Rice] was younger, I spent many extra sessions with Declan, one vs. one, and you could see that he was already very good.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was with second-team players as a central defender. Manuel Pellegrini decided to play him in the first team as a midfielder but [he] was different age compared to Mois\u00e9s. But you could see that he was already very, very good.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maresca stressed the contrast between Rice\u2019s current role and the more restrained holding duties associated with Caicedo. \u201cHe\u2019s not playing as a holding midfielder,\u201d Maresca stressed. \u201cHe\u2019s playing forward, he\u2019s playing like Enzo Fernandez. It\u2019s a different position.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s evolution for him and it\u2019s Mikel [Arteta]\u2019s work. He is a fantastic player and he\u2019s a complete player. He can defend, he can attack, he can do anything.\u201d<\/p>\n
Arteta has described Rice\u2019s transition in a similar way, outlining why the forward aspects of his game suit Arsenal\u2019s approach. \u201cHe can adapt to anything that you throw at him,\u201d Arteta explained when asked about this transition. \u201cBut at the moment that forward thinking and anything that is in front of him is probably much more positive for the team. He has earned the right to increase that role, to be more and more important, to be very present in everything that we do.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s in the leadership group, which is very important as well, and it\u2019s a real presence. Sometimes you don\u2019t need to just wear the armband to feel really connected, really powerful and really important in the team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Arteta added: \u201cProbably yes, a year or two ago,\u201d Arteta admitted. \u201cBut now being with him every single day and understanding and connecting with him in the way that I\u2019ve done, we\u2019re going to get more. Because he wants more and he\u2019s going to get more.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe team knows him better, his role is growing around the team, the impact that he has on the team is huge and we\u2019ll find ways to make it even better.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rice himself recognised the difference between his role and Caicedo\u2019s when discussing the 2024\u201325 PFA Team of the Year process. \u201cI have a lot of respect for Mois\u00e9s Caicedo,\u201d he told CBS Sports . \u201cI voted him last year in my PFA Team of the Year. I thought he was outstanding.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s so many comparisons, but we\u2019re playing different positions.\u201d The Arsenal squad for that season included Rice alongside Liverpool duo Ryan Gravenberch and Alexis Mac Allister in the PFA selection.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Enzo Maresca insists Mois\u00e9s Caicedo and Declan Rice cannot be directly compared due to role changes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4765,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,190,172],"tags":[1081,1140],"class_list":["post-4766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","category-chelsea","category-epl","tag-adaptation","tag-caicedo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4766"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4766\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}