Former Liverpool striker Ian Rush believes Declan Rice is better than John Stones was at the same age, and backed the 19-year-old to become a top-class ball-playing centre-half.
Stones broke through at Everton when he was 19 and quickly turned heads after several composed and assured displays at the heart of their defence.
He moved to Manchester City for an eye-watering £50m over two years ago, and Rush expects West Ham man Rice to follow a similar path.
"He reminds me of John Stones, when he was Everton," he said on beIN Sports after Rice excelled in last night's 2-1 win at Southampton.
"I think Rice is a better player, at that age. Whether [he plays for] England or Ireland, it's up to him to decide. He's come on a lot. For me, he's a centre-back. He can play the holding midfield role as well. To be at his best, for me he's a ball-playing centre-half."
Rice, eligible for the Republic of Ireland and England, has been in the middle of a drawn-out tug of war for his international services. Mick McCarthy held positive talks with the teenager before Christmas, and he's expected to make a decision on who he will play for in the new year.
"With Mick McCarthy, they're looking to progress," Rush added.
"Ireland, what they've achieved the last two years, it's not been great. He'd walk into the Ireland team. Maybe he wouldn't walk into the England team."
Rice himself was happy to heap praise on his team-mate Felipe Anderson after his brace sank the Saints at St Mary's.
"Felipe has popped up with two unbelievable goals," he told West Ham's club website.
"For the second, it was good defending from the corner. Luckily enough we broke, and got the goal.
"In the first half, we were creating chances. We were getting the ball out wide and we had one just before half-time that nearly went in. We come in at half-time and the manager said: ‘keep going, we’re going to get a chance’.
"That’s the first half of the season out of the way. We’ve got to recover now and go to Burnley on Sunday. We’re setting ourselves up for a good second half to the season and we need to keep pushing."
