Charlie Adam thinks people are kicking up a fuss over Arsenal’s goalkeeper situation because Aaron Ramsdale is an England international.
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta signed David Raya from Brentford to provide competition for Ramsdale, who has been his first-choice goalkeeper since September 2021.
Raya was handed his Gunners debut against Everton on Sunday, keeping a clean sheet after being untested throughout the entire game.
After the match, Arteta revealed that he has not been brave enough in the past to swap his ‘keepers mid-game, which is something he might decide to do going forward now that he has two top-class players in that position.
“I cannot have two players in each position and not play them,” he said. “David has tremendous qualities, like Aaron has, like Karl (Hein) has and we have to use them.
“I am a really young manager and I have only been in the job for three and a half years and I have few regrets in what we have done.
“One of them is that on two occasions I felt after 60 minutes and 85 minutes in two games in this period, to change the keeper in that moment and I didn’t do it.
“I didn’t have the courage to do it. But I am able to take a winger, or a striker and put a central defender back and go to a back five to hold that result.
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“And we drew those games and I was so unhappy and someone is going to do it and maybe it (the reaction) will be, ‘oh! That is strange. Why?’
“Why not? Tell me why not. You have all the qualities in another goalkeeper and you want to do something to change the momentum, do it.
“It is a regret that I have and my feeling is to get everyone engaged in the team. They have to play regardless of the competition. Do it. That is my message.”
The decision to drop Ramsdale to the bench, on top of Arteta’s post-match comments, has caused a stir throughout the media and former Liverpool midfielder Adam thinks it has been blown out of proportion because the former Sheffield United shot-stopper is English.
“I think it’s been blown up because he’s an English goalkeeper,” Adam told BBC Sport.
Chris Sutton then asked what that has to do with it, to which Adam responded: “I think other clubs have changed their goalkeepers during the season. Brighton have changed their goalkeeper.
“When you sign somebody, we talk about in this day and age nobody wants a No. 1. You have two goalkeepers who are capable of playing in your first team.
“I think the story has been blown up because he is an English international.”
Arteta might think Raya is better with the ball at his feet, while Ramsdale is more commanding in the penalty box and can deal better with crosses, which Adam mentioned when defending his logic that changing goalkeepers could be good in-game management.
And if the Arsenal manager wants to adapt to different situations by changing his goalkeeper during the match, the former Scotland international insisted: “There is nothing wrong with that”.
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