Coombs Did they? I feel like Raya's barely registered a decent save since he joined us. Can't think of more than one or two bona fide worldies.
I'm very much in the "both decent keepers, but our selection strategy is adverse" camp on this.
I do maintain that although Ramsdale doesn't necessarily "command" the box better than Raya, he is a more physically courageous keeper—more likely to injure and get injured. After that display at Luton Raya is going to have a target on him till Christmas.
As for whether Ramsdale has "seized his opportunity" on his vanishingly rare outings since Raya became first choice, he certainly hasn't. But Raya's getting picked twice a week and barely even seizing the ball, let alone an opportunity. It's all gone pear-shaped lads, our keeper program is off to fuck spiders.
If you zoom out a fair bit, the emphasis of "the Project™" has always been to bolster defence before attending to the rest of the XI, to the point we're still avidly scouting ball-playing centre halves and will presumably never stop—as soon as Edu figures out how to sell Gabriel I suppose.
This whole "two #1s" strategy has made a bit of a joke of the sums being spent on the rest of the defence. We've gone backwards in this position while fielding a multitude of quality back four variations that spare the blushes of keepers who'd be getting humiliated every time they took the field if they were relying on Mustafis and Silvestres.
With Rice panning out incredibly well, and Havertz looking surprisingly decent, it's really the only major area where our recruitment has fallen flat. £55m down and we still don't have our man. I wouldn't mind if we found another option altogether in the summer at this rate.
