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Eastlands stopper Joe Hart has been dropped for Saturday’s clash with West Brom.

Man City boss Roberto Mancini confirmed this bench warmer Shay Given will play in goal against the baggies at Eastlands.

The decision follows a poor run of form for Hart culminating in a howler midweek at the 2-2 draw with Birmingham

It is the first time Hart has been dropped since returning for the side from Birmingham on a season long long deal.

Mancini said: “I have decided to give Shay an opportunity on Saturday.

“His quality is proven and I feel this is the right decision. He has been patient with the club and his patience is rewarded with a starting place.

“Joe is very disappointed and it is difficult because he is an important member of the squad and it is the first time he has been left out this season.

“But it is something he needs to get through and he has to get his head down and work his way up again.

“It was a difficult decision but I thought I needed to give Shay a chance. He has worked hard in training and did well when called upon.”

http://www.expressandstar.com/sport/man ... y-mancini/

madness in my opinion, will do more harm than good.

The right decision for me....Joe's form has dipped recently and deserves to be benched.

If his eye's as black as in the Ready, Steady Cook photo posted yesterday, he might be out injured, though.

Right decision for me, if true. Are you sure it is? Link not working.

If he is dropped then it's interested as it shows that Bobby will not give the press a sniff. In his press conferece he completely dismissed the idea of Joe being dropped ad said he thought he was the best keeper in the league.

Doubt this is true i will wait for the team sheet.

If he is dropped i wont be surprised, if an outfield player had an alarming dip in form over a few games he would lose his place in the starting 11 so why not the same for a keeper?

Either way if he is dropped we are blessed to have such good cover.

BlueinBosnia wrote:If his eye's as black as in the Ready, Steady Cook photo posted yesterday, he might be out injured, though.

Yeah it looked like he might have had difficulty seeing out that eye properly.

Good decision..he's been poor recently

I don't think Joe has any real cause for complaint although I'm sure he doesn't see it that way. The trouble is that Shay isn't great at dealing with an aerial threat either. Still we really should have enough to deal with West Brom today.

Dubciteh wrote:madness in my opinion, will do more harm than good.

This ^^^

another change to the back 5..... great.

Dubciteh wrote:madness in my opinion, will do more harm than good.

Completely disagree. As good as Hart was before the new year, he's made a string of mistakes lately that have cost us points in the league and sent us to a replay with Leicester.

Given's been here for 18 months and all of our back line will be familiar with him. It's not like Joe's being dropped on a whim so we can play someone new.

Might not be true but I'd like to see Roberto be proactive and make the change - at least just once. Would raise big questions about the derby though.

Link is dead... bullshit alarm? Paper retracted the article smells like BS:-)

Nigels Tackle wrote:another change to the back 5..... great.

My thoughts too. Joe hasn't been great but the last thing we need to do at the moment with our shaky defense it more changes.
Still I suppose we are replacing him with one of the worlds best keepers so no big deal hopefully! This is why we kept him on.
Just hope Joe doesn't spit his dummy out and works hard to regain his place.

Hart STARTS!!! MCFC.CO.UK

Hart is in e starting eleven. Correct decision in my opinion

All bollocks, Hart starts.

Wonder why journos bother to write things like that? They'll just end up getting slated for it by anyone who cares enough to notice.

Fuck me. Dzeko dropped. He's on the bench so I assume he's not injured. Kolarov being played further up field. Razak on the bench.

Had a great game today, well in Joe.