OPINION
Danny Mills is spot-on to find a silver lining in West Ham midfielder Declan Rice’s error during the 2-1 loss to Crystal Palace as the 20-year-old will clearly learn from it.
Rice noticeably gave a penalty away against Palace after the ball struck his hands in the box, and it arguably changed the game in Palace’s favour.
After all, before the penalty was converted, the Hammers were 1-0 up thanks to Sebastien Haller and seemed to be growing into the game.
However, while Rice can have no complaints about the penalty being given, his arms were weirdly above his head, it doesn’t mean he should be slammed for one little error after all he’s normally worth his weight in goal.
Mills seemed to agree with this sentiment and the Sky Sports pundit stated that an error like the one Rice made was not worth worrying over as long as he doesn’t start doing it every week, and he even claimed the 20-year-old would learn from it.
“Sometimes you get caught up in the moment. It’s a minor error, I wouldn’t worry too much about that. He’ll learn from that, so long as you’re not doing it every week,” Mills told Football Insider.
“There are different mistakes every week but sometimes you just find yourself in an unnatural or an awkward position and you’re doing your best either to get out, to block the ball or block the player.
“I don’t think it’s an issue.”
Rice is important to Manuel Pellegrini’s side as he has averaged a rating of 7.05 on WhoScored for his league outings this season, which sees him be the fourth-highest performing Hammer, in order to prove he is a consistent as well as a reliable player.
Also when you consider Rice has only made a grand total of one error that has directly led to a goal against his side across his 69 Premier League appearances, as per the Premier League website, surely Mills is right not to worry.
Rice will grow from his rare mistake against Palace and you do feel like some find it easy to forget that the midfield enforcer is only 20-years-old given how many times he has played in the Premier League.
Yet these mistakes are going to happen and they’re vital for his development as it’s easier to learn from first-hand experience when something goes wrong and it will only make him a better player in the long run.
So at least Mills has noticed this and publicly defended Rice in someway.
