2. Joe Hart's Form
Joe Hart is the darling of the English media. And many there believe him to be one of if not the best goalkeeper in the world. Although he is very talented most neutrals would disagree that he is one of the top keepers in the world. However, Hart is still very young and has a long time ahead of him to keep improving. But in the last year it could be said that he has not improved and if anything has slightly declined as a player. Especially during the first-half of the 2012-13 season where his form has been very poor. Its hard to know exactly why Hart has been so poor recently, but one reason might be that he has become complacent. In hearing so often in the media that he is brilliant, Hart might just have bought into his own hype and stopped trying quite so hard. The fact that he hasnt had a genuine challenger for club or country would also not help in keeping him on his toes. Hart has always been a confident character, but it seems that now he is just a bit too cocky. He has been told off several times by manger Roberto Mancini for giving opinions on why the team is performing badly. He also seems to be more-mistake prone and brash in his decision making this year which has contributed to his poor form. Several people within the game have noted Harts cocky attitude this season. Only several weeks before Englands 4-2 defeat to Sweden
Roy Keane commented on it. And after scoring a chipped penalty against him,
Andrea Pirlo said, Against England, I saw that Hart was very sure of himself. I thought that he had to come down off his high horse." The fact that many of his mistakes are also downplayed by the English media would also serve to inflate his reputation in England. Although papers are normally very critical of players Hart seems to get a very easy ride from most of them. His mistakes which would be in double figures this year are very rarely made a big deal of by the media and when they are commented on its generally along the lines of; every keeper makes mistakes so it doesnt matter. Although this is certainly true; good keepers shouldnt be making more than a handful of mistakes in a season. They certainly shouldnt be making many mistakes in big matches either. Hart has made several mistakes for England this year. In a friendly against Poland he made a mistake which allowed Robert Lewandowski to score and against France in the opening match of Euro 2012 he didnt react quickly enough to a Samir Nasri shot which cost his team two-points. Most notably he made a poor clearance against Sweden which allowed Zlatan Ibrahimovic to score a wonder-goal. Hart has also made plenty of mistakes for Manchester City over the past year. His manager has
commented on this in the past saying "I think for a young goalkeeper it is important to always have full concentration. But I think that Joe sometimes loses his concentration. Hart certainly has ability but he seems to play much better when his team is the weaker side. This was shown against Borussia Dortmund when he put in a world-class performance to earn his team a point. Also when he was at Birmingham and when Manchester City were still building their squad he was having to face a lot more pressure during matches. Many of the teams they faced in the Premier League were better than them and he had a lot more work to do so didnt have time to switch off. Now Manchester City are one of the top sides in the Premier League and are considerably better than almost every other team. This means that Hart has to play a different style but he has yet to show that he can adapt to this. Top-class keepers never switch off in matches. This is what makes them a class above keepers who are just very good. Hart clearly is a very good goalkeeper but has yet to show he has the mentality to be world class. Forster, on the other hand, proves nearly every week that he has the right mentality to be a top class keeper.