TheWest Ham fans in the Transfer Tavern have been responding to comments made by Stuart Pearce in defence of young Irish defender, Declan Rice. Whilst speaking in an interview for the West Ham website, Pearce defended Rice for his error that led to Arsenal scoring their second goal at on Sunday and said “When that ball flashes across our box again, Dec will be looking to put his head and feet on everything and that’s the beauty of it.”
"When that ball flashes across our box again, Dec will be looking to put his head and feet on everything and that’s the beauty of it."https://t.co/a17CskXc4A
— West Ham United (@WestHam) April 25, 2018
This season, Declan Rice has been one of West Ham’s standout performers. The Irish centre-back has slotted into David Moyes’ back-three alongside Angelo Ogbonna and Aaron Cresswell with ease in the absence of Winston Reid and James Collins. On Sunday though, Rice made one of his first major mistakes in a claret and blue shirt, which was bound to happen sooner or later.
The young defender ducked out of the way of Aaron Ramsey’s in-swinging cross, blocking Joe Hart’s view behind him, and allowing the ball to drop into the bottom corner. Ramsey’s goal in the 82nd-minute effectively cost West Ham a point and they went on to ship a further two goals, both scored by Alexandre Lacazette, as they fell to a 4-1 defeat on a day where the scoreline failed to reflect how close they were to a very important point.
Taking that into account, you can see what our resident Hammers made of Pearce’s comments:
Better if moyes would have looked the same way at it
— Martyn (@taffyiron) April 25, 2018
https://twitter.com/zakchallis/status/989093227734224900
True
— GaryMac (@GaryMac_) 25 April 2018
Great, but why do it all in the public eye? Shall we talk about players infidelity next? Or Sullivan’s business dealings? We are a banter club.
— John (@0703jab) April 25, 2018
Don’t think anybody is making Dec a scapegoat. Not sure what Pearce has done wrong here either. He is just making an observation.
— Tom Pearson (@TomPearson8) April 25, 2018
So, that's the umpteenth story about this… Where was all this criticism when seasoned professional Joe Hart spilled the ball and allowed Crouch to score ??
— Peter Bos (@1980_bos) April 25, 2018
https://twitter.com/JoeSelner/status/989071098213011456
