News of David Raya’s (£5.0m) arrival to Arsenal has FPL managers a little worried. Mainly for the Ramsdale owners (£5.0m). Raya, who appeared impressive last season with Brentford, has the potential to shift Ramsdale’s position as Arsenal’s main goalkeeper. Moreover, Ramsdale as a premium goalkeeper has decreased his potential because there is potential for rotation under Mikel Arteta’s crossbar.
With the current situation, Ramsdale owners need to be careful and wise in needing this premium asset. What should be considered? if it must be sold, who is the most suitable replacement asset? let’s discuss.
Statistics
All managers certainly understand that goalkeeper assets earn points in three ways, namely clean sheets (CS), saves (S), and penalty saved (PS). Therefore, in choosing goalkeeper assets, it is at least necessary to consider the potential for clean sheets and saves. Measuring a potential clean sheet is much more difficult because it is heavily influenced by other factors such as team performance, quality of defense, opponent’s performance, and so on. Meanwhile, potential savings tend to be easier to measure because they are more individual in nature.
When viewed from the potential for clean sheets, Ramsdale is superior. Last season, Ramsdale excelled with a record of 14 CS while Raya only had 12 CS. But in terms of saves, Raya is far ahead with a record of 154 S (from 197 shots on target, 78.2% saves percentage) compared to Ramsdale who only recorded 97 S (from 136 shots on target, 69.9% saves percentage). From the statistics above, the conclusion is that Raya is superior because the difference between CS and Ramsdale is only 2 CS. Meanwhile, the difference between the saves percentage is quite large (almost 10%).
Team Conditions, Playing Style and Arteta’s Perspective
With a sample of one game, of course it is difficult to imagine how Arsenal are going through this season. If you reflect on last season, Arteta really paid enough attention to the defense. In almost every transfer window, he always brings in new players to strengthen the defense. Currently Arsenal’s defense is quite “fat”. Each position is filled by at least one main player and two secondary players. Thus, the hope is that Arsenal this season have a more solid defense, rarely receive shots, and have more clean sheets.
The problem was that Arteta was immediately tested hard when Jurrien Timber (£4.9m) was confirmed to have been out injured for months. In addition, there are rumors that several players will be sold, such as Cedric Soares (£ 4.0m), Nuno Tavares (£ 4.0m), Rob Holding (£ 4.5m), and even Kieran Tierney (£ 4.5m). If these names are sold, it means that Arsenal’s defense line is thinning again. This condition deserves attention.
In terms of playing styles, Ramsdale and Raya tend not to have any striking differences in playing styles. These two goalkeepers have the ability as a ball playing goalkeeper. It can be seen from last season’s statistics, that Raya and Ramsdale have very similar passing accuracy percentages. Ramsdale 68.5% while Raya 64.3%. This ability may have something to do with potential assists, but the chances are very low, so ignore it.
Based on the description above, it can be concluded that Arteta brought Raya not to completely replace Ramsdale. But, to create internal competition. Great for Arsenal but a headache for the FPL managers.
Conclusion
Statistically last season, Raya was superior. However, Ramsdale has the privilege of being a player who has been joining for a long time. Arteta also emphasized that Raya was brought in to increase competition. So there is still very little information and the level of uncertainty is still very high.
For Ramsdale owners:
If your second goalkeeper has certainty of playing and a schedule that is not tough in the next 3-4 gameweeks, it is better to install this goalkeeper. If your second goalkeeper is not the main goalkeeper in his team, consider changing a new goalkeeper to anticipate goalkeeper rotation at Arsenal. If your team is balanced, There is no urgency for a transfer at GW, it’s better to be safe with the transfer out of Ramsdale and look for another goalkeeper who has more certainty of playing.
Ramsdale replacement recommendations:
Vicario (TOT, £5,0m) Onana (MUN, £5,0m) Steele (BHA, £4,5m) Sanchez (CHE, £4,5m)
