‘Let me tell you’: Commentator says he keeps being told Arsenal have a player who’s similar to Steven Gerrard

Steven Gerrard is undoubtedly one of the best midfielders of all-time.

Indeed, Adrien Rabiot believes Steven Gerrard is the best player ever, while Rafa Benitez has hailed Gerrard in the past too.

There hasn’t been a midfielder like Gerrard since his retirement, but, now, Arsenal may well have the next best thing.

Indeed, speaking on Rio Ferdinand’s Podcast, TNT Sports commentator, Darren Fletcher has been discussing Declan Rice and some conversations he’s had around the Arsenal star.

According to Fletcher, Kevin Nolan continuously compares Rice to Steven Gerrard, having worked with him at West Ham.

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Declan Rice is just like Steven Gerrard

Fletcher shared what Nolan often tells him about Rice.

According to the Northampton Town manager, Rice is very similar to Steven Gerrard.

Rice started out as a centre-back, but he’s becoming a more adventurous midfield player, having more of an impact in the final third.

Rice’s shooting has been praised recently, and his ball striking ability was on show this week as he scored two free-kicks against Real Madrid.

“Let me tell you something. And this is, I see Kevin Nolan a lot. Now, Kevin obviously played a lot of games as a central midfielder, scoring goals in the Premier League,” Fletcher said.

But he also worked with Declan for a long time at West Ham. And Kevin always says to me, the closest player, English player, that he’s seen to Steven Gerrard is Declan Rice. And Kev’s always maintained that.

He said there’s so much to his game. He can do everything. I don’t know whether he needed it for people to believe in Declan Rice, but I wonder whether he needed it so people can believe in Declan Rice being that player, that type of player.

Because he’s been pushed further up by Arsenal. And he’s much more of a part of what they do as an attacking team and has been for the last 18 months or so. But to then see him grab a game like that, we’ve not seen that, have we?”

Declan Rice compared to Steven Gerrard

Rice is becoming more and more Gerrard-esque each time he steps onto the pitch.

Indeed, Rice started as a centre-back before becoming a holding midfield player, but now, he’s a box-to-box star with a real attacking threat.

However, that said, he still has a long way to go before he gets to Gerrard’s level.

While Rice does have that attacking impetus these days, his output isn’t quite at Gerrard’s level.

Who knows? Perhaps as the years go by, Rice could grow more and more into this attacking role.

Martin Zubimendi is set to join Arsenal this summer, and Zubimendi may well allow Rice to play in an even more forward-thinking manner next season.

Rice certainly has the potential to be a more potent attacking threat for Arsenal in the way Gerrard once was for Liverpool.

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