Joe Hart - One Thing To Work On

[bobby brows]

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.

The goals against Villarreal and Bayern are probably harsh examples to use, but if we are being harsh, the very least I would expect is him to tip round the post as opposed to back into play!

[razor400]

TBh I'm more worried about his kicking, not that i don't think he is the best keeper in the prem, just think he is a bit shit at finding a blue shirt when he hoofs it up the pitch.

[dazby]

As stated earlier in the thread Raze he's actually improved that aspect of his game. I still prefer him to roll it out more.

[King Kev]

It seems he hasn't got around to it yet, hopefully soon.

[Douglas Higginbottom]

It seems he hasn't got around to it yet, hopefully soon.

He works on it every week but just aint getting it right consistently enough. Todays was a real bad one though.

[LookMumImOnMCF.net]

Agree the one today was bad and he could do more to try and push it away but it's happening to every goalkeeper this season, purely because of the ball. Hence the goalfests we've been having. Did you see the way RvP's 3rd moved today?

[Blue in the face]

Agree the one today was bad and he could do more to try and push it away but it's happening to every goalkeeper this season, purely because of the ball. Hence the goalfests we've been having. Did you see the way RvP's 3rd moved today?

It sure did. Swerved all over the show. But Joe had got his whole body behind the shot today. Giving the goal away was not as big a mistake as the cost of Vinny missing three matches.

BTW our second goal was a direct result of the Wolves keeper doing the exact same thing.

[The Original Special One]

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.

not holding on; pushing around the post, or out of danger.
But a lot of it is down to lack of concentration, which is probably his biggest problem

I would swap him for Reina; maybe even Brad Friedel
And Shay Given

[Kladze]

Only things he had to do today was field a few back passes and make (what should have been) one fairly straightforward save.

Credit where credit's due - he handled the back passes quite well.

[The Original Special One]

Only things he had to do today was field a few back passes and make (what should have been) one fairly straightforward save.

Credit where credit's due - he handled the back passes quite well.

did he find one of our players with each kick?

[halnone]

Hopefully he's working on not pushing shots straight into the path of oncoming strikers.

[Blue in the face]

Hopefully he's working on not pushing shots straight into the path of oncoming strikers.

He didn't get this good at it without hard work.

[Pretty Boy Lee]

He has lots of things to work on, as he should at his age. No doubt he'll keep working hard as well. His improvement in recent seasons has been brilliant.

[bluemoonnz-71]

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 totlly agree , I think hart should work on it because the goalkeeper has to hold on to the ball or push it away to the sideb, but I think yesterday against wolves was a bit hard as the ball was deflected off the pitch.

[stevefromdonny]

the ball went stright to hart and he pushed it stright back to on running players, he should just push it out for a corner, but my m8 was ok because he had 3-1 at 10/1 so a tidy sum for him

[Dubaimancityfan]

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.

I am of this opinion too. To me it's easier said then done. In that split second that he has to block a shot, his priority would be to stop it first and if in the process he can also push it to the side, I am very sure that he would be trying that too. But as mentioned already in this thread, maybe the modern ball makes that difficult when the ball is shot directly at the keepr from a right angle as opposed to from the sides. Having said, there must be a way to counter this threat and our goalkeeping coaching staff should be working on a solution, (which I'm sure they already are) as the problem has been very clear in our last few matches.
To Joe's credit for yesterday's goal, he was up quickly and faced the Wolves striker and I had a feeling that he would have either stopped the 2nd shot or done enough to distract the striker had Komp not brought him down.

[Dubciteh]

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.

not holding on; pushing around the post, or out of danger.
But a lot of it is down to lack of concentration, which is probably his biggest problem

I would swap him for Reina; maybe even Brad Friedel
And Shay Given

I hope that was a joke.

Joe is young and will improve, yesterdays effort was poor though, if he wants to be a top keeper for a top side he needs to improve his concentration as he may only have to make one save a match at times and he needs to be sure to make it or like nearly yesterday we could throw away the points

[Douglas Higginbottom]

He made a mistake,he knows it and it will hurt.He works very hard in training and no noubt will work even harder to try to avoid errors and especially this type which has hit him a few times now this season.

Still a top keeper and we should be delighted to have him.

Sometimes you get lucky with errors ,yesterday he didn't and it cost.Other keepers miss the ball it hits them full in the face and rebounds to safety!

[bernabias_right_boot]

In the mid 80s I trained as a keeper at PNE. If you didn't catch a cross or if you parried a shot the coaches thought you should've held you got a beasting.
The 'continental' keepers used to palm crosses and shots away. English league goalies were much better at getting the ball to stick.
I think it's a skill that has been lost. They're coached to play the percentages rather than hone their skills. That's the modern game.

[Citylee]

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I have had the same conversation with my mates after today game against Wolves. He's a great shot stopper but for me needs to learn to either hold on to the ball or to push it out to safety. Having said all that he is still the best keeper in the country and I would say in Europe.