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Let me start by saying that I am a huge fan of Joe's and wouldn't swap him for any other 'keeper in the league, I hope he goes on to be a regular for us for many years to come.

Having said that, if I was being ultra critical, I would like to see him work on holding on to more shots. The 2 goals in Munich and the goal by Villarreal the other night were both the results of him making saves but not holding on to the ball.

If he could improve this area of his game he could, in my opinion, become one of the best English goalkeepers of all time.

King Kev wrote:Let me start by saying that I am a huge fan of Joe's and wouldn't swap him for any other 'keeper in the league, I hope he goes on to be a regular for us for many years to come.

Having said that, if I was being ultra critical, I would like to see him work on holding on to more shots. The 2 goals in Munich and the goal by Villarreal the other night were both the results of him making saves but not holding on to the ball.

If he could improve this area of his game he could, in my opinion, become one of the best English goalkeepers of all time.

Darren Bents debut goal at Villa was a parry to create a tap in. Strikers live off the keepers who parry, he will iron that out and be great for years.

I think with all the swerve on the new balls it is really risky trying to hold them most of the time, but for sure he should be pushing them towards the corner flag. Of the three conceded like that in the CL he was only really not at fault for the second againt Bayern. He pushed it away but Gomez managed to squeeze it in from a tight angle.

If he is going to push the ball and all of them do when the situation warrants, he needs to make sure he pushes it outside the post.

It's the ones that get pushed into the paths of descending strikers that are the problem. Push it wide and if it comes back at you then your defenders need to liven the fuck up.

Been thinking about this too.

If he doesn't want to risk catching the ball then he needs to be more mindful of where he pushes it. The one on Tuesday night in particular should definitely have been pushed wide and the goal avoided.

Ditto.

You notice a lot of European keepers punching it wide rather than trying to catch it and I now see why.

I'm sure the club and Joe will learn from their mistakes. Joe has youth on his side, just!
However, they have to learn quickly.

it's not long ago he was being criticised for his distribution, too fast/hasty, too slow. Seems like he's gone a long way to sort that out in a few weeks.
I think our defenders could be doing a lot better when he parries the ball, but it's dead right that he should be pushing it to safety if at all possible. I thought his stop the other night was pretty good and if zabba had put himself in contention for the ball rather than admiring Joe's work and doing a Tony Adams we might have got away with it

Maybe we should bring Isaksson back from PSV to tutor Joe. From memory, he always punched it wide rather than trying to catch the ball and risk a central deflection..

yes, the defence could also be better in this aspect, BUT if Hart has the opportunity to push the ball out wide and not have to rely on whether or not the defender continue coming after the shot was fired, that is what he should be doing. The less people involved in something like that, the less chance of it getting fucked up and costing us a goal.

Back in the day goalies caught the ball far more often than they do now. The ball moved around then as well but I think the modern ball tends to swerve and dip a hell of a lot more. As has been said, make sure to push it wide - or maybe use use the fists,if poss, to get some distance.

Casillas has done the same thing a couple of times already this season,like the other fella said I think the balls now have something to do with it.There was a shot the other night which was going very fast and Joe caught it which suggests to me the few mistakes he has made are something that is going to happen. I have no doubt he knows what to do but sometimes not everything happens like it is supposed to.

The assumption on this thread is that Joe isn't trying to deflect the ball around the post when saving it.

I'm quite convinced he is trying to palm the ball to the side rather than towards oncoming strikers. The modern football can swerve quite a lot even when hit with power ( witness Kolorovs goal against Napoli) and the ball used for the CL is quite special, even with pimples on the surface, which is quite a change for goalies. So it's a bit rich and unfair to have a go at Joe when we really don't know what his intention was.
I'm giving him the benefit of doubt on this.
He showed in the second half how he was able to deflect a shot around the post.

I worried a little however with his decision to punch the ball one time in the second half, when I thought he could have caught the ball. However, in that split second decision he made , perhaps he saw a counter attack possibility , that didn't quite come off. We certainly won't find out what his intentions were.

King Kev wrote:Let me start by saying that I am a huge fan of Joe's and wouldn't swap him for any other 'keeper in the league, I hope he goes on to be a regular for us for many years to come.

Having said that, if I was being ultra critical, I would like to see him work on holding on to more shots. The 2 goals in Munich and the goal by Villarreal the other night were both the results of him making saves but not holding on to the ball.

If he could improve this area of his game he could, in my opinion, become one of the best English goalkeepers of all time.

I always thought that was Nicky Weavers biggest strength, he could keep hold of the ball well and only slapped it back out when absolutely necessary.

Completely agree.

For the limited amount of work that Hart actually has to do, he does make a meal out of the basics at times.

No doubting he is a very good goalkepper and ours and Englands number one for years to come, but has complacency crept in?

Alex Sapphire wrote:it's not long ago he was being criticised for his distribution, too fast/hasty, too slow. Seems like he's gone a long way to sort that out in a few weeks.
I think our defenders could be doing a lot better when he parries the ball, but it's dead right that he should be pushing it to safety if at all possible. I thought his stop the other night was pretty good and if zabba had put himself in contention for the ball rather than admiring Joe's work and doing a Tony Adams we might have got away with it

Great point - his distribution has improved immeasurably this season so he must have been working on it in training. I feel confident that he will address the issue of parrying the ball away in just the same way

ZurichCity
Is this true?
I didn't know that the ball used for the champions league matches were different to those used for the premier league.
If so then surely this needs to be factored into training

Given he's done the same thing on a few occasions now I guess it is a slight cause for concern, but given his youth I'm sure he will overcome this with experience, but that's not necessarily a given.

we should just play pantylemons in goal and play Hart up top with Aguero
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