Robin Olsen (The World's Number Two)

[paul_e]

I was listening to Dave Watson talking to Ben Foster about Arsenal signing Reya and what that means for Ramsdale, and whether it was a good move from Artetta or not.

He made some interesting points about goalkeepers and the mindset of players who see themselves as a #1 keeper, and how its very difficult to keep two players like that happy, even at a big club. Funnily enough they also mentioned that Reya can play out from the back better than Ramsdale can and they reckon that's why Artetta has brought him in.

I just thought it was interesting in relation to our situation with Olsen. An obvious point Watson made was that as a goalkeeping coach he always wants to have as small a drop off in quality as possible between 1st and 2nd choice keepers to minimise potential disruption if #1 gets injured.

Obviously that's a problem we're faced with at the moment, but having one of the best keepers in the world as our #1 also makes it very difficult to keep the gap in quality as small as possible, and keep a second keeper of that quality happy.

I think we definitely need to upgrade Olsen, but I think its a position that we really need to get right, and I'm not sure it's going to happen this window.

The bold bit is why I think focusing on whether Olsen is good or shit is all a bit pointless. We're not going to get anyone remotely close to Emi in terms of overall quality so what we need is to find someone who doesn't mean how we play changes, and then accept that they're still going to be a step down in quality.

[OCD]

The Raya deal is a £3m loan deal with the option to buy next year for a further £27m. Great deal for Arsenal. Although I can't think of a time where a club has effectively had 2 number 1 goalkeepers. I would imagine one would become dominant and the other will end up looking elsewhere.

[Duncan Shaw]

Maybe the last time when Emi and Leno were at, ermmmmm, Arsenal!!

[AV84]

The Raya deal is a £3m loan deal with the option to buy next year for a further £27m. Great deal for Arsenal. Although I can't think of a time where a club has effectively had 2 number 1 goalkeepers. I would imagine one would become dominant and the other will end up looking elsewhere.

The thing I was watching where they were talking about Arsenal seemed to think that Artetta was planning on making Raya number 1 because he is better with the ball at his feet than Ramsdale, and that's how he wants to play this season. They made the point that Ramsdale has actually improved in that respect and would probably continue to improve with Raya there.

If Ramsdale plays cups and some Prem games around Champions League ties, and Raya plays Champions League and the majority of Prem games, they're both getting a fair few games this season. Beyond that though I can't see it working long term.

[N'ZMAV]

Raya's stats are better than Ramsdales - Raya will be number one as soon as Ramsdale fucks up

[OCD]

Maybe the last time when Emi and Leno were at, ermmmmm, Arsenal!!

Except it didn't work, as like I said, one became frustrated and looked elsewhere for first team football.

[brontebilly]

The Raya deal is a £3m loan deal with the option to buy next year for a further £27m. Great deal for Arsenal. Although I can't think of a time where a club has effectively had 2 number 1 goalkeepers. I would imagine one would become dominant and the other will end up looking elsewhere.

The thing I was watching where they were talking about Arsenal seemed to think that Artetta was planning on making Raya number 1 because he is better with the ball at his feet than Ramsdale, and that's how he wants to play this season. They made the point that Ramsdale has actually improved in that respect and would probably continue to improve with Raya there.

If Ramsdale plays cups and some Prem games around Champions League ties, and Raya plays Champions League and the majority of Prem games, they're both getting a fair few games this season. Beyond that though I can't see it working long term.

Seems a very strange decision by Arsenal to me. It's like they are throwing money around at passing out Man City hoping it will stick, I dont understand the logic getting Havertz in to seemingly replace Xhaka either. If Raya was the perfect fit surely they could have got him in last summer at a fraction of the price Ramsdale was. Arteta has made a number of mistakes with goalkeepers before including selling us Martinez obviously. Two high profile No.1s wont work.

[FatSam]

I was thinking about goalkeeping squad depth. 91-93 we had Spink, Sealey, Bosnich and Oakes on the books. That looks really strong, but probably isn’t actually that different to now, as at the time Spink and Sealey were both mid 30s, and Bosnich and Oakes were both around 20. Today Martinez and Olsen are the experienced players, and Marschall or Sinisalo or Zych are the inexperienced ones. Sealey and Spink were closer in quality than Martinez and Olsen, and obviously with hindsight we know that Bosnich turned out to be one of the best keepers around.

[Beard82]

I was thinking about goalkeeping squad depth. 91-93 we had Spink, Sealey, Bosnich and Oakes on the books. That looks really strong, but probably isn’t actually that different to now, as at the time Spink and Sealey were both mid 30s, and Bosnich and Oakes were both around 20. Today Martinez and Olsen are the experienced players, and Marschall or Sinisalo or Zych are the inexperienced ones. Sealey and Spink were closer in quality than Martinez and Olsen, and obviously with hindsight we know that Bosnich turned out to be one of the best keepers around.

The big issue is Emi and I are closer in quality that emi and Olsen

[OCD]

He gets a lot of stick but he looked as comfortable on the ball as I've seen him. Emery must think he just needs coaching and he'll be alright as a 2.

[PeterWithesShin]

MOTM for me.

[Goldenballs]

He made an actual save!  Pretty much straight at him but he still saved it.

[Steve67]

He made an actual save!  Pretty much straight at him but he still saved it.

and then came out and fumbled the catch from the corner. 

[JUAN PABLO]

clean sheet

onwards and upwards

[pauliewalnuts]

No desire to have a pop at Olsen, who did nothing wrong, well almost nothing, but I could have kept a clean sheet tonight.