Jamie Redknapp wants West Ham’s Declan Rice in England’s defence

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Jamie Redknapp has told the Daily Mail that West Ham United star Declan Rice could be the answer to England’s centre-back woes.

Gareth Southgate appears to have something of a dilemma heading into Monday’s clash with Bulgaria. Both Harry Maguire and Michael Keane look to be short of confidence after tough spells for their respective club sides.

Their confidence took a further knock after Czech Republic took full advantage of defensive errors to come from behind and win Friday’s qualifier.

Some may be expecting one of Joe Gomez, Fikayo Tomori or Tyrone Mings to come in on Monday. But Redknapp suggested that the best answer for Southgate, in future, may come from his midfield options.

“I see a centre back in the 20-year-old and that is where his future could lie for club and country, rather than being used solely in midfield,” he told the Daily Mail. “In the modern game, players are being told to pass it out from the back, and Rice is capable of executing that.

“He’d be more than happy to get on the ball and has the intelligence needed to form an effective centre back partnership. Watch West Ham and you’ll see this young man is excellent at what he does.”

TBR’s View

Rice, of course, emerged into the West Ham first-team as a defender. And he arguably did a fantastic job in the role before he did even better slightly further up the pitch.

He has taken to the holding role so well that it can be easy to forget that he was a centre-back. But perhaps Southgate would be wise to keep Rice where he is.

The England boss is not short of options in defence. And with the Hammers youngster playing so well, he may be wary of complicating Rice’s task too much by asking him to revert back to an old position.