He is comfortable on the ball
As well as passing, modern centre-backs need to be able to bring the ball out from defence and into midfield, without losing possession. This requires a good level of dribbling ability.
Rice has a far superior dribble success percentage (75%) than N’Golo Kante (63%), while his average is also higher than Liverpool’s Virgil van Dijk (67%), who attempts far fewer per game.
