Stewart Robson says Arsenal’s number one goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale ‘doesn’t inspire me with confidence’ and thinks transfer target David Raya is ‘better’.
The former Arsenal player added that goalkeepers should be ‘calm, composed, collected and top-class’ and he thinks Aaron Ramsdale doesn’t tick those boxes.
Robson highlighted the previous campaign and how David Raya outperformed the England international, who made ‘six errors’ to the Brentford star’s ‘two’, as he told ESPN.
Whilst the shot-stopping can be debated, one thing is for sure, Raya is much better when playing out from the back.
And given how Mikel Arteta’s side play, then playing out from the back is even more important.
That’s probably why he wants to bring Raya on board, with suggestions that he is open to the move, with Robson sharing his thoughts.
“When I am looking at Ramsdale, over the last six months particularly,” said Robson. “I don’t think he is good with the ball at his feet.
“He sometimes looks as though he has made the right decision when his head isn’t quite clear what he wants to do. I think he has made one or two errors. There have been a lot of goals that have gone in where I have thought ‘he could have done a lot better’. He’s made some great saves. A brilliant shot-stopper, on occasion. He makes eye-catching stops.
“But I like a goalkeeper that doesn’t make too many mistakes that is solid and quite calm. We were talking about Onana running around and shouting at people. If a goalkeeper did that to me, I would say ‘get back in goal and just save it and do your job’.
“I think keepers have to be calm, composed, collected and be top-class goalkeepers. Ramsdale doesn’t inspire me with confidence. Raya I think is a better keeper. Those stats we put up show that Raya was the best keeper over the last season. Fewer errors. More stops.”
Arteta making a ruthless call on Ramsdale
If Raya ends up replacing Ramsdale, then it will be a ruthless call by the Arsenal boss on his £30 million signing (Sky Sports).
It would also be a sense of Deja vu because when Ramsdale took the number one gloves in 2021, he replaced Bernd Leno, who at the time, wasn’t doing much wrong.
But it proved to be the correct call, but Ramsdale might now be getting a taste of his own medicine.
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