Backup CFs will come on in a lot of games to keep them fairly satisfied. Backup keepers do not. You also bought Ramsdale to initially be first choice and he’ll want to be just that to ensure his national prospects don’t take a hit, as well as just sporting ambition to play a lot. Continue as second choice (which he will, as Raya is far better) and he’ll fall out of England reckoning as Pickford, Pope and Johnstone will all be selected over him.
I thought my response got to the bottom of your question. But I’ll give you an answer! When substitutions are made, you can still give bench players good minutes. But will you use a substitution on a keeper? Unless something has gone wrong. So no! A striker that is coming off from the bench can still make a solid impact on a game. Goal keepers job on the other hand is about stability and steady hands. Which is why you wouldn’t simply throw another goalie at a game mid way through. Also, it’s the reason why outfield players can be kept content competing for places because they are always in contention. As I asked you in return, show me a single leading team in world football with two number 1s. You won’t find one!
Again.. times change. Traditionally we only had the 3 subs - now there's 5. Soo more room for tactical rotation. The other key difference that sides like City have brought to the league - is that the best sides now have TWO top quality 11s.
City does not have two goal keepers fighting for one spot. City starts with Ederson in meaningful games with the other keeper a clear number two. There is nothing wrong with having two quality keepers, btw. So long as one does not think that he just got demoted to number two for the new guy. That invariably leads to the old number one leaving. You can’t keep both happy fighting to be number one. End of!
I am disappointed in Raya and question the decision to bring him in. To displace Ramsdale, who was voted as the best goalkeeper in the league by his peers, i expected an absolute beast of a goalkeeper with superb ability on the ball. Raya has had 3 games where we didn’t dominate and has looked poor in all 3 making mistakes that have either cost goals or should have. His distribution long has been poor. Why have we dropped one off the best goalkeepers in the world for Raya??? There must be a personal issue at play here.
Well they are both superb keepers. I think Ramsdale and Raya are both a little below the absolute elites: Emerson, Allison and Donnarumma but they are better than just about everyone else at the moment. People are talking about Pope, Pickford, Courtoise even Onana before he went United - they are clearly a level above those guys. At only 25 though Ramsdale still has the ability to reach the next level. He should also mellow and calm as he gets more experienced. Ramsdale should be starting for me.
I don't want to definitively say who's better after 5 games because it's still far too early. That said, after a couple of encouraging performances early on, I admit Raya hasn't looked as assured consistently in 3 of the last 4 matches. Nonetheless, I don't want us to revise history here - Ramsdale also had plenty of nervy moments and sloppy passes leading to chances for the opposition. I wasn't actually against us going for another goalkeeper because I'm not convinced Ramsdale is someone who would win us a league or Champions League. However, I'm not 100% convinced Raya is either. And the benefit of having Raya over Ramsdale is barely noticeable, maybe a slight improvement, but I don't think there's a big enough gap in quality to have justified creating this situation. The other thing that does concern me a bit is Raya's lack of height. He's 6'0. For context, I'm 5'11 (so Raya is marginally taller than me) and I could never see myself being a goalkeeper because I don't believe I have long enough limbs or reach. And whilst you can make up for height with working harder on skills, reflexes, explosiveness etc, I still think having a taller goalkeeper is better for reaching well-placed shots, dealing with fast reactions, collecting crosses and making yourself bigger in 1v1s. We'll see how this situation plays out, but I'm not entirely convinced this was the right thing to do for the GK position.
Maybe you can give us Ramsdale and take Onana? You can bring Onana on to play in the midfield position too if Saka is injured. He’s very good with his feet!
I did see this. To be fair on Ramsdale - Rayas worst performance was Lens where he concede two in one game (which isn't included here)
It’s also a very low sample rate. Using four games to compare two players is like crowning the champion after five matches. Secondly, Raya came into the team after those early season games when teams tend to be going through transitioning for the new season.
Below is better from last season which illustrates that Raya is the better goalkeeper. Ultimately, Ramsdale will know this too that his future at Arsenal is no longer as the number one. But with his experience as the number one at a major club like Arsenal, he will have options to move if his ambition remains to play in the first team.
It says nothing of the sort. Things like clearances, saves, high claims etc are just a function of playing for a team who is lower in the league. It's like saying a lower league defender is better than Saliba because he makes more tackles. Even things like save % depends on the type of shot faced - again because we have more possession , we will face less speculative shots. Raya was supposed to be great at distribution and he looks worse than Rasmdale now he's at a big club. He also makes more errors.
You can pick stats that make Raya look the better but the eye test for me has shown Ramsdale to be better. My main issue though is Ramsdale was dropped after a few mediocre games, Raya has been far more shakey as of late, a real meritocracy would therefore dictate that Ramsdale come back in based on performances. These are from the the EPL site. They both have areas where they outperform each other - Ramsdale is however only 25 and therefore has the higher ceiling.
