The Premier League thread

Goal of the month, right there.

 

What was Hart thinking?!?

 

Nastasic probably more culpable for me. It's a bit like the Wanyama/Clyne debate really, did Hart shout? You'd have to imagine he did.

 

Nastasic would have had an easy defensive header to Hart had Hart stayed on his line. The chaos was caused by Hart's dreadful decision to charge outside his box.

 

Slightly annoying. Upto Spurs being awarded a penalty and scoring, Saints were still in 3rd spot. Then Joe Hart had to make yet another mistake and we went down to 5th.

 

This is how Hart plays, and without Nastasic's intervention, he would have got there. Nastasic should have known he would come for it, especially if, as you'd imagine, Hart gave him a shout to let him know.

With Hart's current form though, he's always going to be blamed for such incidents, whether it's really his fault or not.

We'd have been fourth at best, Chelsea only needed a point to overtake us on goal difference.

 

But Wanyama was at least theoretically/tactically right to call the switch. It made sense and could have worked had Clyne heard him and it would have been preferable.

But there was absolutely no reason for Hart to charge off the line. It would have been an awkward place to try and get possession even if Nastastic doesn't head it. If Hart does the normal thing and stays in his area Nastastic easily heads the ball back to him, no problem. You can't blame Nastastic for not being able to grasp quickly that Hart was planning to do something completely stupid.

 

Any keeper should stay on their line in that situation. It is a very easy situation to deal with for the defender if the keeper stays put. This is nothing to do with Hart and Hart's form.

By the way, If you think Nastasic heard Hart's very late shout at that point in the match, the 90th minute, then I query whether you've ever been to a proper football match before. Big game between two big team with the home crowd screaming, and cheering, on Torres to chase the ball down. They covered all this on MOTD2.

 

West Ham's striker crisis continues. Vaz Te has dislocated his shoulder and is going to be out for "some time" according to Allardyce.

 

"It's a good job neither my club or international manager will drop me despite my frequent game-changing errors"


Something like that anyway.

 

Absolute rubbish. Many keepers these days play as surrogate sweepers and probably about half the keepers in the premier league would have come for that. You can make the case that in this specific situation the right course of action would have been to stay on the 6-yard line say, but either you come for everything or you come for nothing (or you would get errors like that in every match). Hart's style is to come for everything, and his defenders should know that.

 

Poor guy. It's what playing at a stadium like St Marys can do to you. Joe Hart makes a howler on the biggest stage, Steve Davis scores, and he's never recovered.

 

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I don't think it was the howler. I think it was the fact that he let Steve Davis score that screwed him up.

 

It doesn't matter whether you like to play an aggressive sweeper keeper style or not. That was a rather simple play for the defender and a much harder play (with no margin for error) for Hart. He would have had to make a play on a bouncing ball against Torres in full sprint, without using his hands because he was outside the box. Had Nastastic not headed the ball past Hart, he might just have been beaten straight out and then have no excuse.

Let your defenders defend, that's why they are on the pitch. I really don't think half the keepers in the Premier League would have charged that ball, but if they would, then half the keepers in the Premier League are horrible GKs.

Maybe Nastastic should have heard him shout, but Hart should have made the correct decision in the first place. If you have the mentality that you have to charge out like a crazy man for every ball played in/near the box, then you're going to be out of position and beaten constantly.

 

In that situation very few keepers in the league, arguably none in fact, would have come out like that because it's simply the wrong thing to do. Nastasic had the flight of the ball comfortably covered. Torres wasn't threatening to get to the ball first. Hart should have stayed on his line. You don't simply come for everything at all. If a defender is dealing with something comfortably, especially outside the box, then the keeper shouldn't be charging out. I would bet big money that Lloris would have stayed on his line. Leaving this now because it's clearly Hart's mistake.

 

Lloris never stays on his line. Worst example you could have chosen.

At the end of the day though, Nastasic should have smashed it into the stand if he was at all unsure.

 

Hart was 100% to blame for that. Stupid, rash decision to come off his line.

 

Do I really have to clear this up? The reason I chose Lloris is because he's great at coming off his line and even he would have stayed put. So it was the best example I could have chosen.

Nastasic had it completely under control. There is no reason at all for Hart to get involved. Hart had a huge rush of blood and made the wrong decision. Smashed it into the stand? The ball bounced well above his head. It's an easy header back to the keeper if he stays put like he should have. You know nothing at all about the basics of keeping and defending if you don't think this is Hart's fault. This is such an easy situation for the defender to deal with if the keeper stays put. Every pundit and ex-player thinks it's Hart's fault.

 

100% agree. Surely Hart could have foreseen what Nastasic was going to do.