I think it's quite fair to say at the time it didn't seem much of an upgrade. It's only the start to this season which has shown how good he is. I don't remember much from last season which you wouldn't expect someone to save.
He consistently had some of the beat goalkeeping stats around last season - didn't he keep the most clean sheets in the Prem?
He did last season but he only had a 65% save percentage I think and he's over 90% this season.
But again, the fa s expected immediate results and he was written off before settling in. Players need time.
No one wrote him off. He came and in and played fairly consistently in front of the best defence in the league but wasn't outstanding in any games.
Oh come off it. Everyone moaned about him joining for the first few for months and everything he did was scrutinised constantly!
Like I said, it didn't seem much of an upgrade at the time when we needed players elsewhere. I don't recall many moans and he was pretty steady so nothing much to scrutinise.
Sorry to drag this up but just seen it. The main noise at the time was why are we spending £30m on a keeper when we have a good one in Ramsdale (who was a fan favourite). The pundits were also all over it, saying what an issue Arteta has caused for no good reason. Naturally the fans needed to be 'won over' and would highlight he's no upgrade and it's harder (IMHO) for a keeper to justify his purchase (especially when the sitting keeper was pretty good already!).
He started off poorly but came into his own after the nerves settled. His ability over Ramsdale became clearer, he made those penalty saves in the c/l and not only won the golden gloves, kept more clean sheets than any goalkeeper in a season. I think you undersell his achievements after a inconsistent start and such scrutiny in a first season at a new club.
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I think you're selling him a bit short, Ramsdale made great saves and really endeared himself with the fans, and it's not just fans that rated him, pundits did too - he's a good keeper but has flaws...I would not call him 'average' and IMHO he's too good to be our backup but not good enough to be 1st choice when you want to win serious trophies.
He's just a younger version of pickford, poor positionally, not that great at kicking and makes a routine save look harder than it is with a bit of a flamboyant dive.
I'd say he's a bang average pl keeper, would do a job for a team in the bottom half of the table, no where near good enough for a team with aspirations of more.
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