Declan Rice feels like he will get an assist “every time” he takes a corner – and says England supporters should be “excited” for what is to come at the World Cup.<\/p>\n
England looked threatening from set-pieces during their 4-2 win over Croatia in their opening match of the tournament.<\/p>\n
Harry Kane’s opening goal from the penalty spot came after Noni Madueke was fouled following a Rice cross – and the England captain headed home his second from a Rice corner.<\/p>\n
The 27-year-old was part of an Arsenal side that scored from a record 19 corners last season as they won their first Premier League title in 22 years.<\/p>\n
However, the Gunners faced criticism for a pragmatic style of play and reliance on set-pieces (scoring 25 goals from set-plays overall).<\/p>\n
“Everyone’s enjoying [set-pieces] now, aren’t they?” Rice said, speaking to BBC Sport at England’s base in Kansas City. “Everyone’s enjoying them now.”<\/p>\n
Rice became Arsenal’s designated set-piece taker in January 2024 after a mid-season training camp in Dubai – and the Gunners are now renowned for their prowess from such situations.<\/p>\n
“I wouldn’t ever take corners or set-pieces, but [set-piece coach] Nico [Jover] and the manager at Arsenal saw something in me that others didn’t,” Rice said.<\/p>\n
“They said that I can put balls in areas from a dead ball that no-one else can in the team at Arsenal other than Bukayo [Saka]. From that moment, I really just bought into that, believed in that. <\/p>\n
“As time has gone on I feel like now every time I put down a ball for a set-piece – whether it’s a corner or a wide free-kick – I feel like I’m going to get an assist or make something happen that’s dangerous.<\/p>\n
“That’s a good mentality to have over set-pieces… and England fans can be excited.”<\/p>\n
The midfielder is England’s vice-captain at this tournament and has become one of the most consistent corner takers in the Premier League.<\/p>\n
England boss Thomas Tuchel has put an emphasis on wanting to play football that replicates the style that is played in the Premier League.<\/p>\n
Rice says the Three Lions have worked on set-pieces since the German took over in January 2025 – but the tactical aspect of the game is what has dominated training sessions.<\/p>\n
“We only get a small amount of time here to work on them because we have to work on loads of other stuff,” Rice said.<\/p>\n
“But also we’ve been putting this format and the way we’re going to take set-pieces in since Thomas has come in.<\/p>\n
“A lot of the way we’ve taken them hasn’t changed much in terms of the movements, the way I deliver the ball…<\/p>\n
“This has been going on in the lead-up for the past year, so the lads know what’s coming… where I’m going to deliver the ball.<\/p>\n
“So there’s a real gameplan and it’s just on me to deliver and obviously the boys have to free themselves up in the box.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Declan Rice feels like he will get an assist “every time” he takes a corner – and says…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":716670,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[403,99],"class_list":["post-716669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=716669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716669\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/716670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=716669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=716669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=716669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}