Tony Adams believes that Arsenal should stick with a regular goalkeeper to aid stability in the team.
The Gunners are enjoying a good season so far with Mikel Arteta‘s side firmly in the hunt to challenge Manchester City for the Premier League title.
While currently boasting the best defensive record in the Premier League, Arteta’s decision to rotate between David Raya and Aaron Ramsdale continues to divide opinion among fans and pundits.
Adams was the Arsenal skipper during a period when their defensive line was among the envy of those in English football, with Adams joining Steve Bould, Lee Dixon and Nigel Winterburn in defence, with David Seaman a regular behind them in goal.
As a result the Gunners legend believes that Arteta’s side would only benefit from keeping a tried and tested formula like they did last term when they came so close to clinching the title.
Speaking on talkSPORT’s Sunday Edition, Adams said: “Last year he stopped messing around with his back four and kept a very stable defensive line-up.
“Thomas Partey had a fantastic season for us in holding midfield and Declan [Rice] does it for us today, but not as well as Patrick Vieira and Emmanuel Petit when I got there, then Gilberto.
“It’s so important to have that framework and structure defensively.
“Last year was the first that he didn’t swap his right back and his left back, occasionally he does, but it’s a position on the pitch where you need consistency, you need familiarity and to play with people week in, week out and that was a strength last season.”
Asked about the goalkeeping alterations, Adams said: “You need a goalkeeper who is playing regularly with the back four and it was a big strength for us last year.
Tony Adams was a key Man in one of the Premier League’s meanest defences
“I’m not too sure why they’re doing that [changing goalkeepers].
“For me, Ramsdale had a fantastic season last year. I get the other competitions and in top flight football nowadays you need a squad of players and a couple of fantastic goalkeepers, but you’re always going to have a number one.
“Go back to Arsene’s days, at the end he was changing goalkeepers left, right and centre and for me, it’s always been a weakness.
“I was watching them playing out from the back against Brentford and they nearly messed it up again.
“Back in the day with George Graham, he would have loved it. We’d do it in practice all the time where we’d give the ball to the opponents’ goalkeeper and they’d try and play it out and we were all over them.
“A full-press system that we had at Highbury back in the day, we pressed them and tried to score a goal in the first 20 minutes of the game and we’d have loved little teams playing out from the back.
“We’re getting away with it at the moment, but I don’t like it.”
Ramsdale kept a clean sheet in the Premier League win over Brentford on Saturday, with Raya unable to play against his parent club.
When pressed further on the situation, Adams added: “I don’t think Ramsdale did anything wrong and I would have stayed with him if I was manager of Arsenal Football Club.
“It’s a complete risk, absolutely, but if he thinks he’s such a superior goalkeeper and this goalkeeper that he’s bringing in is
“With recruitment I always say you want to bring people in that are better than the ones that you’ve got.
“So if he thinks that this goalkeeper is better than the one he’s got and it’s going to go and win the title for us because that’s what I’m about.
“I always started the season with wanting to win the title. Actually, is this goalkeeper going to win the title for us? So if the manager thinks, yeah absolutely you’ve made the move, you’ve got him in and Ramsdale’s the backup goalkeeper now.”
