"Certainly, Declan Rice should get off Twitter because anything that goes on between himself and his coach should stay within the dressing room – you don’t need to go public like he did," Eamon Dunphy told RTÉ's Game On on Monday night.
A strange statement considering that David Moyes chose to go public with his criticism of Rice rather than keep it within the West Ham dressing room following his side's defeat to Arsenal on Sunday.
There were under ten minutes to go at the Emirates on Sunday when a mistake by Rice allowed Aaron Ramsey to give Arsenal the lead - 4-1 was the score by the final whistle.
"Up until 81 minutes we looked worthy of a point," Moyes said after the game as he begun his criticism of Rice.
Had moments in the first half, but a young player makes a poor mistake for the second goal. He’s got big potential but it really flattened the team. The last thing you do is let the ball go.
To be fair we had done most things really well defensively. He has to show it won’t happen again and he will have to step up.
Hours following the game, Rice - who made his Ireland debut against Turkey last month - sent out a tweet declaring that he's still in a learning process as a player.
I'm young.. I'll make mistakes.. it's all a leaning process to get to the top. thank you too the fans again who were brilliant❤⚒ ready to bounce back next week.
— Declan Rice (@_DeclanRice) April 22, 2018
"It was very unlike David Moyes – he’s not really like that and I can’t remember him publicly criticising a player before," thought Dunphy but his critical words were mostly for Rice.
"He’s a very good, young player. Young players make mistakes and you have to put your hand up sometimes. David Moyes is a good guy, he’s not some fool, and he was clearly angry.
"He shouldn’t have had a go at the kid, but the kid should keep quiet and get on with his work. It’s one mistake, he’ll learn.
"If you’re on Twitter answering your coach, then you’re on the wrong side of where you should be. If Moyes has a problem with his attitude, then there’s probably something wrong with his attitude."
Picture credit: Sportsfile
