Arsenal face few enough shots that Raya has to be almunia level as a shot stopper to be anything like a liability. And that ignores Raya’s value in possession and as a sweeper.
Raya is generally really strong in the air. Seems to me he claims or punches well north of 90% of crosses/etc coming in around the 6-box. Due to several coincidental factors he didn’t get to it on their equalizer. Shit happens, it’s football. OK maybe he’s no Allison, Courtois or maybe Donnarumma either (his smaller size is one of his main limiting factors IMO), but he’s a very very good keeper. And a big net plus for us.
Of all the injured players, for me the most important is Odegaard (assuming we have a striker be it Havertz or Gyokeres). Eze is great, I like him. Didn't think he was as good as he has been. But that said, Odegaard makes passes no one else can. Often sublime. Zubi comes close, but lying so deep, he can only do so much. With Odegaard farther up the pitch he can find the through pass for the attackers. And with a Zubi, Rice, Odegaard midfield, we have 2 players in particular (Zubi and Odegaard) who can make passes from anywhere. Rice is a decent passer himself. So, three playes, three who can defend and pass. Eze can penetrate better than the others, and while a great passer, Martin sees passes Eze doesn't. Getting everyone back is going to be fantastic. We can rest first team players and put out a very strong side in cup competitions. And bring on a starter in case of emergency.
I’m still trying to understand what mistakes Raya has made this season (excluding the 2nd goal against Sunderland). To me, he’s been excellent. All of this talk about x-whatever compared to other keepers is “so Bigsoccer.” What mistakes in the games so far has he made that can be pointed and analyzed? I can name a few world class saves (shot stopping) that he has made that has kept our clean sheet streak alive. He made one or two against Sunderland! Where are his mistakes?
As someone pointed out upthread, this is why De Gea had to be ditched - he was like being a player short in possession Elite shot stopper means nothing - any top keeper is elite at it, and the small marginal differences aren't meaningful What you obviously can't have is a keeper full of gaffes like Onana
I think he's a downgrade on Ederson overall, but at least is bring order and calm at the back? The who ederson was strange but apparently due to financial chicanery Turkey was offering huge contracts so he just took the retirement money
Nah, Ederson had fallen off the last two seasons. He was dropped last season, iirc. It’s not getting rid of Ederson, it’s replacing him with a style opposite in Donuramma.
Thanks for that. The first two screen shots are reactions to the same play, which was a bad pass from Raya, in the Liverpool game. The third screen shot is a shanked shot that Raya had covered. There is no mistake here. The fourth screen shot can't be tracked since there isn't enough information, so it's not a real example of a mistake - just a comment. The last screen shot shows Raya trying to shield a ball that was slowly going out but stayed in bounds. He got him into trouble shielding it and had to scramble back in goal. It's a mistake. And the shot by Alvarez that hit the bar was unnsavable by any keeper. It's just a great shot. There is no mistake here. In reality, you are talking about two mistakes with his feet in about ten full games. If this is what you can find for a goalkeeper, then that's not too bad, especially given how much his distributes the ball and how consistently strong he has big in many other areas. Actually, in general and despite these two examples, I think his distribution overall has been good as well.
If not Raya, who? I am old enough to remember Lehmann. Mad Jens some called him. He was. But for a time I thought he was arguably the best keeper in the world. The season Arsenal went to the CL final, we went went several games with clean sheets including knockouts of Juventus and Real Madrid. He cost us a goal once in a while, but overall he was brilliant and brilliant at the right time. Give me Raya.
Yeah that’s why I said “maybe” for Donnarumma whereas the other 2 are pretty indisputable. Donna seems an elite shot-stopper… I’ll have to see more of him and his game to judge finally.
That’s part if what remains to be seen. And why pundits thought him a surprisingly odd choice by Pep. But then they weren’t quite expecting him to change their style of play as he has. Evolutionary flexibility!
Jens wasn't even the best GK from his own county in that era. Hard to argue that Jens was better than Oliver Kahn.
IMO Raya is a huge part of why the defense is so good, I don't have an issue with him. I went back and watched that tying goal again, LOL Big Gab is my guy but wtf was he doing? I actually want to believe that if he doesn't grab Brobey's jersey that fake overhead kick is still sailing away on Tyneside somewhere. Brobey played for Ajax, he's not good lol he will likely never score another goal like that again in his life. Just hysterical even after almost a week after the game. Then the even funnier part, Gab is arguing with the ref, lol. Hilarious. People who were at the game were discussing the ending of the game on Twitter spaces and mentioned how tired everyone looked which is why we didn't close down the crosses towards the end of the game. Nothing has really changed, get 3 points every weekend. That's it.