Hart, Pickford Or Butland? A Tough Time For English Goalkeepers

Hart, Pickford Or Butland? A Tough Time For English Goalkeepers
10:21, 14 Nov 2017

There was a time when English goalkeepers were almost uniquely revered in world football. Brave, commanding and ultra-reliable, a place in the national team was heavily contested. Throughout the 1970s, the presence of Peter Shilton and Ray Clemence was a high water mark for this phenomenon. Two outstanding goalkeepers, they often alternated as England’s number one.

It was a ruse dreamed up by Don Revie to ensure that both Shilton and Clemence were given a fair crack of the whip. Unable to separate the two, Ron Greenwood followed suit when he took charge of the national team. It’s safe to say that the current contenders don’t present Gareth Southgate with quite the same dilemma. Of the three goalkeepers first called into his squad for the friendlies with Germany and Brazil, none could claim to be in great form.

Joe Hart, Jack Butland and Jordan Pickford have all had tough starts to the season. Their records are eerily similar, with each an ever-present between the posts for clubs mired in the bottom half, having conceded 22 goals from 11 league games. West Ham and Everton have already dispensed with their managers, while Mark Hughes remains in place at Stoke.

Despite these unenviable records, their selections were something of a formality due to the lack of viable alternatives. Although he plays for a more defensively solid team, Fraser Forster is badly out of form. Often clumsy and slow to respond, he doesn’t warrant consideration to add to his six international caps.

Elsewhere, Tom Heaton is out injured and Ben Foster has previously stepped away from the England set-up to focus on club football. Nick Pope has been a revelation in his short spell as Burnley’s number one but promotion to the national team would have been premature after little more than a handful of games in the Premier League.

Even after an impressive debut from Pickford, Hart remains Southgate's clear first choice and will return to the starting line-up tonight to collect his 75th international cap. It's been a difficult couple of years for Hart, with high profile mistakes and the public humiliation of being unceremoniously ditched by Pep Guardiola. Once considered irreplaceable, his hold on the England goalkeeper’s jersey has become increasingly tenuous.

A rocky Euro 2016 marked the end of Hart’s era of unquestioned dominance. Always a boisterous and voluble figure, he was seen on camera trying to gee up his teammates in the tunnel ahead of the meeting with Wales. His subsequent failure to deal with a fairly routine free kick from Gareth Bale suggested that greater control and composure was needed. Perhaps a matter of perception more than anything else, it reflected poorly on him nevertheless.

Then came embarrassment against Iceland in the last 16, as England exited meekly when faced with the tournament’s surprise package. The decisive goal was scored by Kolbeinn Sigthorsson, whose tame shot squirmed under Hart’s outstretched hand and over the line. Slumped on the pitch at the end of the game, the once animated goalkeeper seemed drained of confidence and energy.

Afterwards, he came out fighting in a post-match interview where he took responsibility for errors that had directly contributed to two goals and put his team under pressure. There were calls for him to be dropped but Hart started all the World Cup qualifiers that followed, with the exception of a 1-0 win over Lithuania once England’s place in Russia had been secured. Job done, Southgate had the freedom to experiment.

After years of unchallenged supremacy, Hart is finally facing a battle to keep his place. Pickford and Butland are both young but worthy rivals, yet competition has been further limited by the latter having to withdraw from the squad because of a broken finger. Angus Gunn, currently on loan at Norwich and with just 19 first team appearances to his name, will watch on from the bench, underlining the paucity of available options.

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