Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta has got people talking with his decision to replace Aaron Ramsdale with David Raya in the Gunners goal.
During the summer, Arsenal made the somewhat surprising decision to sign the 28-year-old goalkeeper from Brentford.
The £3million loan signing – with £27million option to buy – came after Ramsdale had just enjoyed another superb season with the Gunners.
Raya initially began the campaign on the Arsenal bench, but has now started the Gunners’ last two matches.
This has led to criticism of Arteta from some quarters, along the lines of the Arsenal manager potentially being too ruthless.
However, Jamie Carragher defended Arteta in his latest Telegraph column, saying the “ferocity” of the criticism has baffled him.
“There has been a lot of sympathy for Ramsdale since Arteta signed Raya and made it known he was not joining as a back-up,” wrote Carragher. “The ferocity of some of the criticism baffles me.
“During last season’s title run-in, Arsenal wilted during the pressure moments.
“The margins were small in some of those games in which they dropped critical points, and Arteta will have analysed in depth how and where they could have been better.
“The goalkeeping position was one of those areas.
“Ramsdale enjoyed a superb game against Liverpool at Anfield, but his form dipped immediately afterwards.
“In the following three games against West Ham, Southampton and Manchester City he was poor.
“Again, this is not a case of singling him out to suggest if Arsenal had a better keeper last season they would have fended off City. There were several factors involved in their failure to get over the line.
“Nevertheless, when you have a studious coach such as Arteta who is always demanding more from himself and everyone around him, it is unsurprising he took his chance to sign Raya when he became available.
“If a manager’s instinct tells him he is not completely happy with his keeper, he will act.”
Carragher went on to mention Liverpool’s transition from Loris Karius and Simon Mignolet to Alisson Becker, Manchester City going from Joe Hart to Claudio Bravo to Ederson, and even Arsenal’s George Graham replacing John Lukic with David Seaman in the 1990s.
Our view
At the end of the day, managers have to do what’s best for the team, even if that means being ruthless.
Besides, we shouldn’t be surprised about Arteta’s ruthlessness in pursuit of making Arsenal the strongest possible team by now.
We saw it with Bernd Leno, a top goalkeeper, who ended up losing his place to Ramsdale.
We’ve seen it with the likes of Mesut Ozil and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, big names who were unceremoniously frozen out and offloaded.
We have also seen it with the likes of Kieran Tierney and Takehiro Tomiyasu, previously indispensable players who are now on the fringes.
With that in mind, it should come as no surprise that Ramsdale could now slip to number two.
The post 'Baffles me': Jamie Carragher stunned by what he's been hearing about Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta appeared first on The Boot Room.
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