Progressive Passes
To be a world-class holding midfielder, you do need to be able to progress the ball up the pitch, rather than simply passing it sideways or backwards. A progressive pass is simply a ball that goes forward at least 10 yards in the final two-thirds of the pitch (or is passed into the penalty box).
On this metric, Rice is the worst of the five players we are looking at. He averages only 2.88 progressive passes per 90 compared to Busquets (6.44), Kante (4.91) Fabinho (4,77) and Casemiro (4.00)
In conclusion, then, it is safe to say that Rice is not a £100m player quite yet, but he is already competing with the best in his position when we look at certain areas, so the potential is clearly there for him to become world-class.
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