David Moyes believes Declan Rice is a 'top midfield player' after Graeme Souness suggested his future lies in defence.
Rice helped West Ham United battle to a 1-1 draw against Chelsea on Saturday afternoon, Tomas Soucek cancelling out Joao Felix's first-half opener.
Prior to the Premier League fixture at the London Stadium, former midfielder Souness wrote a column in the Daily Mail suggesting that Rice would be better as a defender moving forward.
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The Scot wrote that 'he doesn’t score enough goals and he’s not terribly creative. He influences games by preventing West Ham conceding, not because of the creative pictures he has in his head as he plays' and concluded that 'he might end up as a defender.'
While Moyes respects the pundit's opinion, the West Ham boss said after the Chelsea draw that Rice has shown 'week in, week out' that the England international is a midfielder.
"Graeme Souness is a good judge and if you are talking about central midfield players, Graeme Souness is as good a judge as anybody," he said. "Certainly from me watching, I think Declan Rice is a top midfield player and has shown it week in, week out. Today, he did a great job for us because he wasn’t well."
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