Joe Hart - England's no.1 or a failure?

Roberto Mancini did Hart a huge favour by choosing the Englishman over Costel Pantilimon in the FA Cup final, overriding his policy of starting the latter for all domestic cup matches. Manchester City lost the match courtesy of a Ben Watson goal and Mancini lost his job. City lost the title to a dominant Manchester United side as they won the title by a whopping 11 points.

Manuel Pellegrini’s arrival seemingly changed the complexion of the whole City squad, and times looked good. But Joe Hart could not rediscover his form as horrible errors against promoted minnows Cardiff City meant City lost only their second game of the season 3-2.

This is a crunch time for Hart. A time, when he needs to sit in a room, turn off the lights, and think to himself, what went wrong? What can he do to rectify this?

Joe Hart in training

Extra sessions on the training ground or improved training regimes? Whatever it is, Joe Hart desperately needs to sort out his form. Or it won’t be long before the likes of Asmir Begovic or Costel Pantilimon replace him between the sticks as Manchester City’s number 1.

Nobody doubts his potential. Hart has loads of potential. He needs to dig in and release it. He is in desperate need of support, and needs a lot of it. His confidence has taken a major blow in recent times, and only a glorious goalkeeping performance would give us back the real Joe Hart.

A possible motivation at this time would be the story of Spanish youngster and rival keeper David De Gea, who after a torrid debut season silenced his critics with some sensational performances for Manchester United. De Gea is the perfect example of a young keeper rediscovering, or rather improving, his form after being pushed down to the lowest of lows. If Hart does overcome this debacle, then we might just be looking at the goalkeeper to dethrone experienced keepers like Gianluigi Buffon, Iker Casillas and Petr Cech, and leave competitors like Manuel Neuer, Rene Adler and David De Gea in the dust.

But until then, what we are witnessing might just be the making, or breaking, of Joe Hart.