You are currently viewing At What Point Does Ange Pull The Trigger On Celtic Keeper?

At What Point Does Ange Pull The Trigger On Celtic Keeper?

That is the question I am asking myself tonight, and one, Ange Postecoglou should also be asking himself.

I wrote on Twitter tonight that we might have been fortunate that we got such a good season out of Hart last year.

His career had been going downhill for a number of years. Ever since leaving Man City he’s been on the decline, making more mistakes and not being fancied by managers wherever he’s been.

Coming to Celtic, yes, he made a couple of mistakes last season, but overall, he was very good and proved to be a great signing, but that went against the trajectory his career had been heading in.

Was last season his last big hurrah? I hope not, but the way that this season has started for him, I’m not confident that it wasn’t.

I wrote an article about the reaction by some supporters on Twitter at the weekend as there was quite a number of people I saw advocate for Hart being dropped for Ben Siegrist.

Looking on there tonight, the cries for that change have only gotten louder.

Not everyone, there is still a lot of support for Hart to keep him place, but from what I have seen, it’s edging towards a change in goal.

I haven’t seen anyone else say this but for me he should have dived earlier for the first goal. He could have come out and smothered it straight away, he was on pace to do this, but he slowed, hesitated and then Nkunku was able to drag the ball away from him and by the time he decided to dive for it he had no chance.

The second goal was shockingly bad.

It annoyed me in the interview post-match that he didn’t just take full responsibility for the mistake, instead, he said he owns up to the error but in the same breath he put half the blame on Ange by saying that’s the way the manager wants to play.

That led to the BT Sport panel basically agreeing with him and also putting blame on Ange’s style of play.

I’m sorry, but that was out of order for Hart to do that and it is out of order for anyone to try to shift some of the blame onto Ange.

Just because he wants Hart to play out from the back, doesn’t mean he shares half the blame if Hart plays a shocking pass straight to the Leipzig player that was never on to play.

That’s not how it works.

That’s three out of the last four games that Hart has made a big mistake that has cost us a goal.

Ducking out the way of Shakhtar’s goal, the own goal against Motherwell and now tonight.

So, do we keep Hart in goals and hope he stops costing us? He’s still a good keeper and also made some good saves tonight but where does Ange draw the line and say “right, that’s one to many” and drop him? Is it now after three big mistakes? Is it four, five, six mistakes before he finally gets dropped?

It is hard with a goalkeeper because confidence plays such a big part. Would dropping Hart totally destroy his confidence and if we need him to come back in will he be even worse?

Or does he need time on the bench to get himself focused and this will help him if we need to bring him back in at a later date?

It’s hard to know, but we do have to remember, Siegrist was brought in to keep Hart on his toes and provide him with the competition that Scott Bain and Barkas weren’t giving him. He isn’t here just to make up the numbers.

Give your thoughts in the comments below.

This Post Has 4 Comments

  1. David

    Time for Benji to get a shot in goal, Hart has done well overall since coming in but bit of complacency sneaking into his game, evidenced by the last few games. Ange needs to show that nobody is undropable and give Hart a bit of time out. Might focus the big man to get him back to the levels of last season.

  2. Mr James A Burns

    Yes, he needs rested…. ff…. he’s causing heart attacks halfway up the pitch, throwing the ball out when nobody’s ready for it. Ffs Joe… calm down.

  3. eganj505John Egan

    Time for Bennie to replace Joe Hart ,he has been a good keeper,but I think joe should retire,

  4. Peter McHugh

    Now is the time for Siegrist to be given a sustained run, obviously very uncomfortable with the ball at his feet, been a few near disasters for Joe even on the domestic scene

Leave a Reply to DavidCancel reply