Miami vice for Declan Rice as Thomas Tuchel names Harry Kane’s England deputy

Thomas Tuchel has confirmed Declan Rice as England’s vice-captain for the World Cup after the midfielder and his Arsenal team-mates joined their preparation camp in Florida.

The 27-year-old arrived at the team’s West Palm Beach base with Bukayo Saka, Noni Madueke and Eberechi Eze on Saturday evening as their team-mates beat New Zealand 1-0 in baking Tampa.

Rice is one of the first names on the England team sheet and travelled to the United States fresh from playing a key role in Arsenal winning the Premier League and narrowly losing last weekend’s Champions League final.

The 72-cap midfielder’s quality and personality will mean he serves as vice-captain during this summer’s quest for World Cup glory having stepped up during skipper Harry Kane’s absence for the October friendly against Wales.

“I think I would say Declan is my vice-captain,” Tuchel said after beating the All Whites.

Asked whether Rice knows that he has that role, Tuchel said with a smile: “That is a good question. I was just thinking about it. Whether it is an official thing or not.

“But I think we had this talk when Harry was not in camp with us. We started with Ollie (Watkins) and I think Declan was captain. That was where I told him.”

Rice and the rest of the Arsenal contingent began work with the group on Sunday as attention turns to England’s final warm-up game against Costa Rica in Orlando.

Tuchel says the approach for Wednesday’s friendly will be “different” having fielded different teams in each half against New Zealand, but he has yet to decided how best to utilise the Arsenal players.

“We will get bigger chunks of minutes because it is part of the build-up and then after that we will have six days or something for Croatia,” he said. “We need some