Moyes: Souness got it wrong about our Dec

DAVID MOYES was polite about it, but ultimately, West Ham’s manager wanted to let Graeme Souness know that he was wrong.

Wrong to say Declan Rice is not a central midfielder in his column in Saturday’s Daily Mail. Wrong to say he might be a better central defender. Wrong to say he does not create enough to be considered an elite man in the middle.

‘Graeme Souness is a good judge,’ Moyes said after the 1-1 draw with Chelsea. ‘If you’re talking about top midfielders, Graeme Souness is as good as anybody, certainly from me watching. But I think Declan Rice is a top midfield player and he has been showing that week-in, week-out.

‘Today, he did a great job for us because he wasn’t well.’

This may not have been Rice’s best day but then, as Moyes says, he was playing with a virus. The same virus which meant Aaron Cresswell did not make the West Ham squad at all yesterday.

Souness used his column to argue that the best midfielders have three attributes — they can create, they can score and they can defend. According to the Mail columnist, Rice is a master in only one of those categories.

Rice displayed his defensive expertise here, stomping out Chelsea attacks. But up against Enzo Fernandez, it was Chelsea’s £105million man who showed more of his creative side in this draw. His assist for Joao Felix was a peach of a ball in behind West Ham’s back line.

Rice is tipped to take over from Fernandez as a British transfer record. It is his defending that he is known for.

When Lucas Paqueta had to be substituted for West Ham — they hope it isn’t a recurrence of a previous shoulder injury — Moyes’ side lost a great deal of creativity from midfield.

Rice tried to chip in, but as Souness says, that isn’t his forte. Tomas Soucek tried to help, too, but his greatest contribution was a diving save to stop Conor Gallagher’s shot, which Chelsea felt should have resulted in a late penalty.

The discussion surrounding Rice’s position will continue. But as far as Moyes is concerned, it’s a dead debate — he’s a central midfielder.