West Ham Fans Take to Social Media to Hail Young Defender's Performance Against Southampton

West Ham supporters were thrilled with the performance of youngster Declan Rice against Southampton on Saturday, and took to social media to show their

West Ham supporters were thrilled with the performance of youngster Declan Rice against Southampton on Saturday, and took to social media to show their appreciation.

The Hammers as a collective were impressive against the sorry Saints and went some way to erasing the embarrassment of two weeks ago against Burnley, and Rice was a shining light at the back for David Moyes.

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Compliments of the 19-year-old ranged from 'one for the future', to 'played beyond his age', and 'has it all' to 'outstanding'.

Rice has only made eight starts for the club in the league this season, but the way he played against Southampton is sure to give Moyes a selection headache going into the final handful of games.

Perfect performance from you yesterday. My MOTM #WHUFC

— Jimmy Hunt (@jimmyhunt88) April 1, 2018

So many good performances from West Ham players today. Arnautovic, Masuaku, Kouyate, Fernandes to make a few. Hat tip to Declan Rice though, superb alongside Ogbonna. Didn’t put a foot wrong all game. He’s the real deal.

— Sam Inkersole (@Sam_InkersoleTM) March 31, 2018

So many brilliant performances today, but my stand out players were Declan Rice, Marko Arnautovic, Arthur Masuaku and Edi Fernandes.

Absolutely brilliant.

— West Ham Fan Zone (@WHUFCFZ) March 31, 2018

Declan Rice > John Stones

— WHU_HUB (@WHU_HUB) March 31, 2018

Declan Rice is just unreal. Better than Jon Stones and he went for £50m so how much is he worth?! The lad is going far.

— West Ham Transfers (@westhamtransfer) March 31, 2018

The teen, who was born in London but declared himself for the Republic of Ireland and recently earned his first cap, operated on the right hand side of a three-man defence and certainly showed great positional awareness and made some solid tackles to give Southampton's attackers very little on the day.

West Ham won the game 3-0.