We started breaking through more, and eventually scored when we played long balls though. As committed as Raya was to the game plan, playing short didn’t really work except maybe it set up the long ball option better for the second half.
Except Raya’s long ball tactic is a directed ball to Jesus who is very impressive at retaining the ball in the air for his size and also when we had the likes of Partey, Tomi and Havertz on (all big players).
Raya does play it long yes but it’s not without reason
Jesus is great at ball retention, but not at winning aerial duels against fullbacks who tower over him. The long ball tactic only started coming off once we had Havertz subbed on to bang those balls into. Raya played some magnificent balls in the second half no doubt, but Ramsdale had talked about how Arteta had given him the freedom to play the ball he felt comfortable playing. Now it’s getting banged to death that Raya “stuck with the gameplan” of playing it short which he barely got away with. If he makes a mistake in that first half and we concede one or two then nobody would be mentioning this at all.
We started breaking through more, and eventually scored when we played long balls though. As committed as Raya was to the game plan, playing short didn’t really work except maybe it set up the long ball option better for the second half.
Except Raya’s long ball tactic is a directed ball to Jesus who is very impressive at retaining the ball in the air for his size and also when we had the likes of Partey, Tomi and Havertz on (all big players).
Raya does play it long yes but it’s not without reason
Jesus is great at ball retention, but not at winning aerial duels against fullbacks who tower over him. The long ball tactic only started coming off once we had Havertz subbed on to bang those balls into. Raya played some magnificent balls in the second half no doubt, but Ramsdale had talked about how Arteta had given him the freedom to play the ball he felt comfortable playing. Now it’s getting banged to death that Raya “stuck with the gameplan” of playing it short which he barely got away with. If he makes a mistake in that first half and we concede one or two then nobody would be mentioning this at all.
He was very good at it against Gvardiol though
Who was? Jesus?
Yes