Hart Stopper
Today I am delighted to share a guest article by Martin McGinn. As a goalkeeper himself, Martin would like to offer some insight into Joe Hart this season.
As an aside, I welcome guest articles so I you have a proposal please contact me to arrange.
Take it away, Martin!
Context and Summary Points
This season we have seen quite a few cases of teams getting forward players behind our defence on the break.
The difficult part for a goalkeeper in these situations is the decision making on positioning, rather than the act of a save.
In the four highlighted examples, the pass has been played from relatively deep and the striker has had space to run onto the ball but is still outside of the penalty area when approaching the ball for the first time.
In one example, Joe Hart’s decision making is excellent and that enables him to make an impressive save.
The other examples highlight a short trend of poor decision making from Hart that have made the concession of a goal much more likely.
What does this tell us?
The team as whole are more exposed at Champions League level and therefore these situations are more likely against this standard of opponent.
Hart’s decision making in these situations is trending on the anxious / over eager side.
Domestically, Celtic do not face the pace and power from a Mykhalo Mudryk or Christopher Nkunku, so the assessment process of such situations needs adjustment.
This is one to watch for the rest of the season, as the sample size is still small.
One thought is that this season, Celtic’s set up requires Hart’s general positioning when Celtic are in possession of the ball to be more advanced / aggressive this season. Could that mind-set be subconsciously influencing Hart’s decision making when faced with these highlighted scenarios?
Hart still possesses strong instinctive shot stopping qualities (as recently shown in saves from Stevie May, Robert Snodgrass and Mudryk at Celtic Park). In these cases, the starting distances between goalkeeper and striker are closer with less variables for Hart to consider.
Hart is not getting any younger. However, it is the small percentage things that start to decline slightly first.
Example One – Celtic vs Heart of Midlothian, 21st August 2022
Example Two – Shakhtar Donetsk vs Celtic, 14th September 2022
Example Three – RB Leipzig vs Celtic, 5th October 2022
Example Four – Celtic vs Real Madrid, 6th September 2022
Martin’s last example, plus the save Hart made from Mudryk in the recent home tie versus Shakhtar Donetsk, show Hart is still capable in these situations.
But the prior examples certainly provide insight and debate as to how well Hart can perform at the highest level going forward.
Thanks again to Martin.