Joe Hart HAS to be dropped...

Celtic only had 18% possession, at home, to Barca and only lost 1-0 after they were down to 10 men.

Barca didn't have too many clear cut chances either. Celtic could even have rescued a point, or more, late on when they got some chances.

What Celtic had was guys who knew their limitations and played their balls off, defending as they needed to defend. The goalkeeper pulled off some magnificent saves to keep them in the game.

Now, Bayern are better than Barca, but Barca are still one of the top 5 teams in Europe so they are a good benchmark.

If Joe Hart hadn't let that 'easy' first goal in, who knows what would have happened. The longer the game goes on, the more chance that we could have got our act together and maybe got something from this game.

Bayern took their foot off our throat near the end but we could have scored 4 goals last night!!!

If Hart had kept us in the game, maybe one of those late chances could have been the winner or leveller. We can't afford his mistakes anymore.

We were shit in the FA cup final, but Joe should have stopped their goal easily. I reckon he is costing us too many points now, letting teams into games that we should be closing out.

Pants deserves his chance, and maybe he should be allowed a few chances after that like Joe has been given.

I agree. He is becoming a lot of a liability. Last season was bad enough but this season he's gone out all guns misfiring
He's fucked up in all our losses & even some of our wins

All we are saying, as a great Dipper once said is 'Give pants a chance'

Its been said that he had no chance with the 2 shots at his near post that he failed to save due to the power of the shots and that had we scored 2 goals at a keepers near post like that we would have celebrated 2 great goals (you know who you are).
That's a daft analogy as we would celebrate any goal for us even if it defected off 3 players and went in off a passing dog.
The fact remains the Hart is failing to deal with basic shots or gather simple crosses into his box not to mention the fact that his distribution is still woeful especially his kicking.
I now feel a sense of dread anytime an opposition team are in our box because if they are not closed down and get a shot off chances are they will score.
Pants has earned his time between the sticks and its time for Joe to move over and let him have the chance he has earned.

Just heard Bob Wilson on TS...and he says Hart is still the best English keeper and that his study of the PL has shown that with the new, lighter-styled ball moving so fast through the air, keepers will make on average, 10-15 mistakes each season because of the ball.

They over-compensate by getting down too early, however, he did say that Hart should've got 2 hands on the first and would be disappointed with the third.

Still, Woy has just announced that Hart will still be England's No.1.

ManCityMan wrote:That's a daft analogy as we would celebrate any goal for us even if it defected off 3 players and went in off a passing dog.

Very true.  I seem to remember everyone celebrating that goal that Darius Vassell scored a few years ago, where he completely miskicked it and it dribbled past the keeper in slow-mo.  Or the one Lescott scored with his arse.

But the point still stands.  It's something I was talking to my son about last night.  He said, quite correctly, that he's got no competition for his place, not just for us but for the England team, so he's getting lazy.  I told him about Big Joe, who had to fight for his place in the City team and had both Clemence and Shilton to keep him out of the International games, all of which made him fight and become a better keeper.  It's also no coincidence that Joe played better when his City place was under threat from Given and his England place required him to work his way past Rob Green, Scott Carson and David James.

It's perhaps also no coincidence that his performances were better when his squad number was 25.

Pantilimon desperately wants game time.  In the FA Cup last season, he conceded just one goal and that was an unstoppable effort in the semi.  Whenever he's on the pitch, he initially looks like a frightened rabbit, but quickly settles down and looks comfortable and confident.  He can even get down and stop low balls, not bad for such a big lad.  I say he gets the nod for the Everton game and, should he play well, he should stay there for the forseeable, while Joe works on his shot stopping and distribution.

blueboy wrote:... however, he did say that Hart should've got 2 hands on the first and would be disappointed with the third.

Yeah, what on earth possessed him to dive for a low ball with just the one hand?  How arrogant do you have to be??

I completely agree that he needs competition that has never been in doubt, he is getting complacent in my view and was believing all the hype about him being the best in the country and England's Number 1 etc. Time for a reality check and some time on the bench, we have 2 good keepers and it's time MP started using them both to keep them sharp. Remember when Joe was vying with Kasper for the job? He was great and looked a great prospect but then success went to his head.