Aaron Ramsdale admits inexperience played a part in Arsenal’s downfall at Anfield as Liverpool ground down the Gunners in the first half before accelerating away after the break to secure a 4-0 win.
The Gunners were relatively solid at the back until Sadio Mane broke the deadlock on 39 minutes but completely fell apart in the 20 minutes after the break as Diogo Jota, Mo Salah and Takumi Minamino helped themselves to goals against the backdrop of a raucous Kop.
After the match, Ramsdale made clear that Arsenal will learn from the experience after sticking too rigidly to their original game plan.
“For the first 30 to 40 minutes, we did well – they might have had more possession and more shots, but we contained them,” he told Arsenal.com.
“At the start of the second half, we gave them chances and from then on, it was a mountain to climb. It was one of those nights but it’s a marathon, not a sprint, and this team will go again. We’ll learn from tonight.”
Assessing the error-riddled first 15 minutes of the second period, he added: “I think that’s where we need to learn on the pitch.
“We obviously had our gameplan but as a young team, sometimes we stick to the gameplan too much and we need to learn to possibly be strong with each other and talk more to try and weather the storm.
“The quality that they’ve got – we’re aspiring to get there. We’re working and like I say, it’s a marathon, not a sprint.”
While it’ll take a couple of days to process a sobering experience, Arsenal have a prime opportunity to get back to winning ways in Saturday’s early kick off against bottom club Newcastle.
Bouncing back quickly is going to be very important. “Yeah, definitely – the boss has just said it in there and a couple of us have said it as well,” said Ramsdale.
“We won’t have people moping around with their heads down. We’ll come in and evaluate the game. We’re an honest bunch of players. Mistakes happen – we want to play that way, so full focus now ahead of Newcastle.
“We’ve been on a 10-match unbeaten run, with eight of those in the league, so we can hopefully start another [run] like that.
“After three games, everyone was talking about us and then you produce a mini-run. I don’t feel like anyone hid today, although there were mistakes made from all of us. We’re still trying to play our philosophy and that’s the way it goes. Hopefully we get to this stage in our career with our team where we’ll be doing this to other teams.”
Growing up can be a pain sometimes. But what a lad, Ramsdale😍
Definitely sounds like a future captain mould. Speaks wiser beyond his relative young age. Topped up with the passion and attitude, you know there is someone to push on during the purple patch
Sounds like a future manager already!
What a man. Heading for statue no doubt.
Wilson, Jens and Seamen gotta be in line first… and Big Weng
Sounds good, hope they learn from this eg not giving the ball away to top strikers. First half was good apart from the goal.
He talks like a captain. Good.
We played out from the back against the best pressing team in the world. What are your thoughts on that second half tactic?
Suicidal needed a plan B
there is no plan B
I am not sure what he is talking about here really. Appreciate he is probably just trying to say something rather than nothing, and its very difficult in the post match pressers after getting rinsed like that to come up with answers to direct questions without digging out any teammates. But the reason we lost today was a combination of individual errors that were created by the game plan kinda not being followed in my opinion.. The decisive goal was the second really, the first one coming from a set piece, that wouldn’t have done too much damage mentally, because… Read more »
Spot on!
Yep on all that. New striker (s) and experienced strong CM required (like Kessie or Zakaria)…..but it looks like we are already working on those for Jan or the summer.
Second goal was the killer. Disappointed we didn’t start better in the second half but I’m glad to see most people aren’t going all Piers Morgan….let’s hope OGS is still in the Manure job when we go there !!
Excellent points. I honestly think if thomas wasn’t fully fit he should have started from the bench. Go with niles and lokonga from the last game. It wouldn’t have change the result but atleast we would have 2 committed pivots on the field. Partey was anonymous all game and especially in those tough moments he hide from receiving the ball unlike lokonga (hat off to the kid he never hide, he will learn from this). I hope arteta don’t drop him for the next game. About the striker alternative to auba especially in these games, I think we maybe and… Read more »
I don’t think hoofing it to a traditional number 9, who holds it up to bring in his teammates, is the way to play against Liverpool. It’s pretty clear you need to play out from the back but move it quickly to overload the outside and get behind their advanced fullbacks. This is especially true on their right, where Alexander-Arnold is a poor defender usually positioned as a inside-right attacking midfielder and Salah is far forward on the outside. They rely on Henderson (who is not fully fit) and their other midfielders, as well as Van Dijk’s extraordinary intelligence and… Read more »
Throwing long balls to Auba and Saka and ESR doesn’t seem like a robust alternative
I love this guy, humble, intelligent, young, and an exceptional keeper, those saves were unbelievable
Surely that comment implies less-than-full confidence in the gameplan?
But thats not what he said, did he.
Not really. If you’ve played football at all you know how you have a plan for the match, but adapting and adjusting to the game state as it evolves requires on the pitch leaders and experience. As he said, we have a young team, so this is what they will gain, experience, to know how to manage these situations and diffuse the pressure at critical moments in a game.
Yeah…..thought Partey was off it
If he can take a gubbing and move on then let us take it on the chin and do likewise, lessons from our young team to be learnt, Geordies up next a good team to play to start another mini run going again..
Whoa, you better hope that the incompetent autocrat Arteta doesn’t take this as a criticism Aaron. Otherwise no matter how good a player you are you may see yourself sidelined. See Saliba and Ozil as cases in point.
Ozil who now can’t get a game at Fenerbahce? Arteta really shat the bed on that one, huh..
18th strongest league in Europe though mate. Tough league to get a game in.
Judge him by how well he was playing in the prem for us and how many hours without scoring from open play while he wasn’t even allowed on the bench. He really did fuck that one up on all available evidence.
Your comment is grossly tangential.
We’re nowhere near Man City, Liverpool or Chelsea, but we knew that. We were in it for the first half and will learn from this…
Onwards!
To keep playing out from the back against Liverpool is suicide, we need a plan B, and more pace up front
I love this guy. Come on Arsenal!!!
Love this guy!
I like his leadership qualities… I also prefer GK as captains especially one that is vocal and strong at the back. Ramsdale is definitely a potential future captain and one of many I think could be captains in this team. I have to admit Auba as captain has been a disaster but soon he’ll be gone and we’ll get a better captain one with actual leadership qualities not one with a jokester clownish quality
Hope they play sambi and Tavares in the next game they need to get it out of their systems, good young players given a massive lesson by a top team.
Not too worried about Sambi. His first two games for the club were the Brentford and Chelsea 0-2’s and they didn’t seem to knock his confidence at all.
It will be interesting to see how Arteta handles the left back position. Newcastle should be a straightforward win either way, but with tough trips to Old Trafford and Goodison coming in the next 2 weeks I can see a case to get Tierney back in.
Sambi will definitely play, think partey is our biggest problem in midfield. I would bring Tierney back though, think people have been very quick to forget that he was probably our best player over the last couple of seasons.
Arteta is as rigid as his hair. Looked like a deer in the headlights all second half. Some pathetic display of Alpha male posturing against Klopp but when his teM needed direction, went missing. You could see it coming with Ramsdale under pressure and the team lacking any threat going forward second half. Arteta could have instructed his charges (Tavares and Sambi particularly) to stop with playing the ball out thru the risky centre. He could have provided better outlet with Martinelli &/or Pepe over the careless and non competitive Auba, give the backs and outlet to hit long as… Read more »
You can complain all you want about him putting on Edu, but at least he didn’t put Grimandi on
They did their best but that second goal was the killer punch, from there everything crashed and we stop being compact and start making mistakes for a simple pass and given them a lot of space and not pressing together as a team. Even Da 3rd goal when mane race clear our midfielders and defenders were high up the field as soon as mane race clear game over. we gifted them all the goals but it a learning experience for them but truth be told never expected a win from the boys. The gulf in class and the calibre of… Read more »
Knowing there mistakes will let them learn hw to prevent them
The team is still work in progress. We’ll get there, just patience, resilience, and hard work