All keeper's have mistakes in them, comes with the territory. His have been very few indeed and far less that recent incumbents.
There are mistakes and there are mistakes.
The usual type is when a gk is required to make a "regulation" save but lets it through his arms, or goes to collect a cross, then drops it under no pressure.
Last night was entirely different. When defending free kicks in that position, Bees like to hold an especially high line. i suspect this may be because the stats show most goals are scored from in front of the goal, 6 or 8 yards out. Therefore if the ball finds an opponent on the edge of the area (because Bees defence has pushed them out) then they're much less likely to score from that far out.
Of course, pushng so far forward leaves a bigger vacant area between the defenders/attackers and the goal, so Raya is instructed to come further off his line than usual, to cover the gap. Which is all well and good, only Fulham spotted a flaw, in that his positioning means he will be unable adequately also to cover his near post. And following practice on the training ground, Bryan was able to exploit that flaw.
So in that sense, DR didn't make a "mistake", since he was only following instructions. Rather it was the instructions themselves which were the mistake.
Which considering we are normally so good on set-pieces, is poor, very poor.
What is also worth considering is the impact of (i) his willingness to come for and catch crosses, which has taken enormous pressure off the defenders; and (ii) his comfort and calm on the ball and distribution.
It is easy to focus on the negatives with a keeper, because mistakes are generally punished with a goal, but if he goes he will be one of the hardest to replace with someone of similar quality in my view
No-one is disputing any of that, nor saying we should replace Raya.
Nor can we really complain when a player slips up (eg Pontus v Swansea) unless he makes a habit of it (Pontus doesn't, as we know).
But the significance of last night's error wasn't so much that it was costly (it was, but sh1t happens sometimes), rather that it was avoidable.
