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Declan Rice gives surprising response to ‘bitter’ James McClean after being called ‘overrated’

Declan Rice gives a surprising response to ‘bitter’ James McClean after being called ‘overrated’ by the RTE Sport pundit.

Declan Rice said in his press conference prior to the Euros game against Slovenia that McClean’s criticism of him may come from ‘bitterness’ towards him for opting to play for England over the Republic of Ireland.

McClean ripped into his ex-teammate, saying: “I think with Musiala, he justifies the hype. I think Declan Rice is very overrated. Don’t get me wrong, I think he’s a very good footballer, but the way the english media wax lyrical about him, I think its completely over the top.

“Like, for me, he’s not world class. World class to me is someone who gets on every single side in the world and I don’t think he does that.

“I don’t think he gets in the Man City side ahead of Rodri. To me Toni Kroos is world class, He dictates the game, Rodri dictates the game, I don’t think Declan Rice does that. He’s not someone who’s going to get on the half turn, play, passes forward. He’s very good at what he does.”

Interviewer: “So he is not a different type of player, James?”

McClean: “Well, they play the same role, so, you know, they play the same role, so why can’t they do the same thing?

“So if you’re going to give them this much of a hype and, you know, reputation, and surely he should be able to do what they do is to get the ball in half turn play, pass it forward and dictate the play. I don’t think he does that. He’s good at what he does. He sees danger and he puts out fires. But, you know, for the hype that that surrounds him, then I don’t think. I don’t think it’s justified.”

James McClean added in the Denmark v England game:: “I made a comment about Declan Rice that people have got their knickers in a twist about but for a £100million player I want to see more than just five-yard sideways and backwards passes.

“He attempted one forward pass in the half and it went straight into the goalkeeper’s hands. I want to see him do more, break lines, but in the battle in the first half, Denmark just won it very comfortably.”

Now Rice has been asked about McClean’s criticism, to which he responded: “I am not going to sit here and slag him off. I thought he was a really top guy. When I left Ireland to come to England, I heard a few things he was obviously not happy about. He made comments a few years ago.

“It is what it is. I am not going to sit here and say anything about him. He’s had a great career himself – I think he is coming to the end of his career now and he’s got over a hundred caps for Ireland.

“It would be easy for me to sit here and say something back to him but, like I said, we are at opposite ends of our careers now – he’s 35 and I’m 25.

“I’ve known him, I’ve played with him, he’s entitled to his opinion and I’ve had to fight a load of those opinions from other people before.

“It might be a bit of bitterness towards me not playing for Ireland but I’ve not got a bad word to say about him, to be honest. I see the comments but I don’t try to put too much energy into it.

“It is what it is and you move on. You live and learn.”

England midfielder Declan Rice on England’s senior leadership: “As a group Gareth has his leadership group and we have had discussions.

“Such a good thing that Gareth has with the group is that we are so open and honest.

“Thinking back to it earlier this tournament has gone very similar to the other tournaments.

“Tomorrow night we are ready and we want to top the group and have seven points. It is a chance to start looking forward in a positive way.”

Declan Rice on his midfield team-mates: “Players that want to take the ball and be positive. I have seen players give everything even though it has not gone the way we wanted it to.

“We want to dominate the game more, but as I said to Gareth earlier you are coming up against world class players all the time.

“It is about getting the balance of what we want as group. We can get better and I am sure we can get better as the tournament goes on.”

Rice on playing more forward for Arsenal: “I only moved into the eight position after Christmas.

“My first discussions with him [Mikel Arteta] was to go to Arsenal and play as a six.

“But, as we started to play more Areteta liked me in the eight role and it gave us more balance – I can play both and I am happy to play eight or six. It is the managers decision I will go out and give 100% no matter what.”

On Slovenia: “I have watched Slovenia and they have been good, strong players who are really fast. The main talking point is Sesko – he’s been a massive target for clubs round Europe.

“They are going to come at us and try win and shock the world. Tomorrow is a chance to bounce back after the other night.”

England boss Gareth Southgate on finding solutions: “We have had time on the training pitch and plenty of discussions with the players. Whatever I say is fairly irrelevant, we have to do it on the pitch. We’re all on the same page. The route forward was pretty simple to highlight and we have to go and deliver it. I’m expecting we do that tomorrow.”

On mood in the camp: “The mood is very good. We know the world we live in, there will always be external noise but it shouldn’t affect us. What’s important is the internal. The performance is what we’re focussing on. The results have basically put us in the next round already and now we want to top the group.

“We are not hiding from anything and we are not making any excuses at all. That’s not what we do as a group. Tactically tomorrow is a different game. There are some fundamentals that we need to get back to.”

Southgate on his Oura ring: “The idea is it helps monitor your sleep which is the biggest factor in terms of recovery. The best things to aid recovery are sleep and nutrition. We’re not checking on the players but it allows them to monitor their own recovery. Getting home from the game last night was really late. It might encourage you to have a nap in the afternoon or relax more.

“In the tournament, you have a heavy schedule. The kit men get back and wash the kit early in the morning. The staff all need to look after themselves and that’s something we take very seriously.”

On lack of shots conceded: “The game before the tournament against Iceland, we were a little bit open and we had players in the backline who hadn’t played much. We tried to find a balance against Serbia. We needed a backline that could keep clean sheets.

“You have to defend well. Although we haven’t used the ball as we would have liked. We need to turn the ball over higher up the pitch and that’s something we have been working on.”

On Gary Lineker criticism: “That’s the world we’re in. I’m oblivious to it, it’s not important to me at all. What’s important to me is I guide this group of players through the tournament. We’re a high profile team. I’m very comfortable with that life.

“I don’t need to listen to externals because I am my own biggest critic and I think most of the players are as well. That’s how you coach a team and improve performance.”

On possession: “I think we’ve had different cycles with this team and different moments. I don’t think the performance over the last two matches have reflected how we’ve played over the last couple of years. We’ve had a short period here where we’re not functioning at the level we want to. That’s been a brilliant challenge to unpick that and find the best way forward and be honest about where we sat three or four days ago.”

On any tactical changes: “I’m clearly not going to go into detail when the opposition are listening. Our performance will have to talk for itself. It’s important to answer the questions as well as I can but I will be judged on the way the team play and I understand that and I’m comfortable with that.”

On playing against bigger teams: “We’ve always known we are one of the team who can win the tournament and we also knew Spain, France, Germany Portugal – you only have to look at the squads to see their quality. Croatia tonight have to win to stay in the competition. We haven’t change our objectives. We know to do that, we have to show a different level to what we have so far.”

On Luke Shaw: “Luke Shaw is the only one that’s not really available, he’ll possibly train with the team tomorrow but he’s not quite ready yet.”

Sam Allardyce and Kevin Nolan hit back at James McClean over Declan Rice ‘overrated’ comment

This is how fans reacted as Declan Rice gives a surprising response to ‘bitter’ James McClean after being called ‘overrated’…

@ConorWilson2: Very classy from Declan Rice. No need to get drawn into a war of words when his career to date and likely trajectory speaks for itself.

@TheShireGunner: The class of Arsenal coming out of Dec

@MrBlack1902: Kill them with Kindness, well played Declan Rice

@ArsenesGlasses_: When your class rises above a two bob piece of shit……

@snell1989: Classy response from Rice. Would have been easier to call McClean out as the little piss whippet that he is.

@gsherrington80: Rice – top player and human 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

@KAILUFC11: Proper role model this lad.

@GAndrews18: Fair play to him, classy response

@Jay89R: Great response 👏🏻 big respect Rice for this

@tsigalkoesque: What I’d like to see is England players and manager holding their hand up and saying ‘we know we’ve been sh it but we’re going to try and do better!’ – instead they all think the sun ‘s coming out of their arse and anyone who criticises them is automatically in the wrong 😑

@bwfc_elliot: One of the worst things a professional footballer can do is publicly criticise the performances of a fellow professional, and it doesn’t surprise me one bit that James McClean is one of the few people that have done this

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