da spicy bet： Calling out your young defender for making a mistake is a particularly difficult tightrope to walk. West Ham manager David Moyes was quick to try, however.
da casino： After a costly duck at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday afternoon, Declan Rice, a player who has had a breakthrough season in Claret and Blue and who has been granted an international call-up as a result, was the subject of his manager’s ire.
There will be some debate about whether or not this was the right thing to do. It’s not immediately clear that this was a mistake from Moyes.
There’s a school of thought to suggest that a manager shouldn’t be calling out a young player at all to ensure his confidence remains intact. But the opposite opinion is that some tough love is needed to bring a youngster down a peg. In this case, that might well be justified: after all, this is a kid who has been compared to a great of the game in Paul McGrath, and anyone who knows Irish football will be aware of the esteem that the former Manchester United defender is held in by Republic of Ireland fans.
My own view, for what it’s worth, is that there’s nothing particularly wrong with it in this instance. It isn’t like substituting Reece Oxford at half time against Leicester in only his second start, for example. In that case, Slaven Bilic seemed to suck away all the confidence from a player who had a wonderful debut and arguably hasn’t been the same since.
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If Oxford now goes onto a football pitch living in fear of the misplaced pass that might lead to a humiliating exit at half time, that’s a severe problem, and it’s Slaven Bilic’s fault. If Rice now heads a ball out for a throw in instead of waiting for a goalkeeper who may or may not be waiting behind him, then whilst that might be the fault of Moyes, it’s certainly not a bad mental hang-up for the defender to have. Deal with the problem and ask question later is what every pundit and ex-pro will rhyme off by rote in such a situation.
But then there’s the fact that the Hammers could hardly be described as being mistake free this season – why single out Rice and not point at others who have made mistakes this season. Moyes isn’t in the right simply because Rice won’t be emotionally damaged in a particularly bad way.
Perhaps what this comes down to is that Moyes is an old-school manager. And we’ve heard a lot about such managers recently – the most obvious example being Jose Mourinho.
The Manchester United boss has been accused of being ‘past it’ over the last few years. That might be a tad over the top for a manager who has taken his side to second in the league and into their third cup final in his two year tenure as manager. But the criticism which is maybe more worryingly apt is that Mourinho doesn’t understand a younger generation of footballer: perhaps it’s not that he doesn’t understand the modern game and its tactics, but that he doesn’t get the players themselves. It’s a lesser charge, but still a worrying one. Whether it’s true or not no one other that Mourinho himself can say.
But is that a problem that Moyes is perhaps aware of and attempting to overcome here?
Is he criticising Rice as a means to toughen up the soft ‘millennial’ snowflake? Is he trying to prove a point to the youngster, to mould him into a different sort of player or character? After all, Rice is a thoroughly modern young defender: a tidy ball-playing centre-back and not the rough and ready type of defender you’d usually see playing for the Irish national team.
Only time will tell how Rice responds to being singled out by his manager. But for a player who has drawn plaudits this season to have one dissenting voice among the praise may not be a bad thing for a youngster.