At worst, Saliba isn't strong enough when holding off his man in the box. It's similar to how easily he bounced off Awoniyi for Forest the other day. Has to do better. Defender's job is to clear their lines. Willy hasn't done that in that instance. If Raya is a bit more proactive he might have got to it, yes. But ultimately that's Saliba's error.

On the plus side, the distribution is different level now. Especially the throw outs for counters. Ramsdale used to have a few opportunities for these outlet throws in every game, but he'll typically run like he's about to throw it and then hold off and squeeze his face and hold his hand up in apology, before making the safe pass / throw= chance gone.

    flobaba Ramsdale was doing that in the couple of games he played too. Looks like they've been working on it in training.

      Don Pacifico
      allison was assertive and took responsibility. ultimately shit can go sideways either way when the defender doesn't do his damn job.

        What impressed me most with Raya yesterday was when he went to collect crosses. Pretty sure he had a 100 % success rate when claiming them and there were a few he had to deal with.

          Yup no panicked punching. Everything claimed and calmed. Clear upgrade for me. Glad he's settling in nicely now.

          he has huge hands, catching is probably his best feature.

          Segway yup, and in one such instance, claimed it, rushed ahead and immediately chucked it onto the path of Martinelli. Fluid enough that it makes me think he scans a lot for potential opportunities before he catches it.

            6 days later

            His distribution wound me up more than anything else, but looks like there’s been an instruction more recently to get the ball out as quickly as possible.

            Mistakes and nerves seem to be gone. Only missing link really is the ability to make match winning saves.

            Raya did well in a match where we faced 0.2 xG and the opposition got 5 touches in our area (or whatever).

            You could've had the proverbial inanimate carbon rod in goal and we still would've won 5–1.

            Anyway, he's not doing badly and there's been some spectacular high-paced long throws recently. But for mine I'm happy to wait till it's more than a week since our last unforgiveable defensive bollocks-up to crown him.

            Ramsdale would surely have done fairly well this season with the more defensive approach we've taken.

              Burnwinter

              As discussed previously, last week was much more on Saliba than Raya.

              This is predictable though, I knew when Raya started doing better there will be little to no chat. Anyway let him go under the radar and prove you guys wrong.

                  Why do you talk as if it's some grand prediction that Raya won't be talked about when we're not facing shots? 😆
                  If we conceded a single goal yesterday, Raya would've conceded 0,8 more goals than expected.

                  Looks a lot more assured and confident, has settled right in now. Happy to have him starting ahead of Ramsdale, definitely an upgrade.

                  Sicario2 - Tier 1 I don't get it. There's plenty of Ramsdale compilations that look good. In fact this one of Raya makes it seem like he almost never faces pressure?

                    7 days later

                    Passing ability with feet. Improved.

                    Starting position to sweep up behind defence. Much Improved.

                    Cross collection. Very much Improved. I don't think I've actually seen him punch one out in the past month.

                    Counter initiation/ choice of throw or long kick out accuracy to sustain attacking impetus. Improved.

                    Clean sheet percentage is probably going to end up improved as well come end of season.

                    Perhaps the only metric where Ramsdale is superior is spectacular shot stopping. But we literally face almost zero shots on goal these days.

                    My verdict: Raya's definitely an upgrade. Provides peace of mind for both players and fans (myself) alike.

                    He's definitely looking the part in recent games. Claiming catches is so helpful to relieve pressure on the defence.