Jamie Carragher has revealed which goalkeeper out of Gianluigi Donnarumma and David Raya he would prefer to have in his team if he was competing for the Premier League title.
Manchester City were expected to line up with James Trafford in goal this season, but Gianluigi Donnarumma made the switch from PSG during the later stages of the summer.
The Italian arrived at the Etihad Stadium having just won the Champions League, so it was known how important his experience would be to the club.
Donnarumma has recorded more clean sheets than any other goalkeeper in the Premier League this season, except for David Raya.
However, the Arsenal shot-stopper has made four more appearances, so the debate between who is better tends to be subjective.
Jamie Carragher would rather have Gianluigi Donnarumma in a title race
Both Donnarumma and Raya are exceptional goalkeepers, but City’s man between the sticks clearly has the advantage when it comes to past experience.
This is why Carragher believes Donnarumma is the more preferable option for a manager to have at their disposal during a race for the Premier League title.
He told Sky Sports: “A goalkeeper, in terms of winning the title, is almost the most important thing.
“I don’t think you can win the title without a top goalkeeper, but you can win the title without a top-quality player in every other position.
“In this title run-in, I would take Donnarumma. Just because of him being there in the pressure moments. The level he’s played at before. Raya hasn’t got those honours just yet.”
Carragher added: “I love Raya, I think he’s absolutely fantastic. But for the average football fan, when you think of a goalkeeper making saves to win the league, everyone will just look at that.”
Donnarumma is a better shot-stopper than Raya
Sky Sports displayed a number of statistics while Carragher was giving his explanation and Raya’s goalkeeper performance metric was actually higher than Donnarumma’s.
The Arsenal player has more quality when it comes to distribution, throughball sweeping and cross claiming.
However, Donnarumma is the clear favourite when it comes to stopping shots and he is also better in one v one situations.
Ultimately, both goalkeepers are very good, but Donnarumma is a proven winner and has already shown how capable he is of stepping up in the biggest moments.
