Brendan Rodgers is looking to swiftly move on from Joe Hart’s UEFA Champions League error away to Feyenoord, insisting he has ‘no doubts’ about the Celtic number one.
Hart was beaten by Calvin Stengs’ free-kick in the first half of the Rotterdam fixture, with pundits and fans suggesting his positioning and use of the Celtic wall were far from ideal.
The English veteran did go on to save a penalty in the second half, to his credit, but there was criticism of the goalkeeper in the wake of the fixture.
In fact, there’s been unease from some fans throughout the summer about whether or not Hart should be relied upon as the primary shot-stopper. But Rodgers has made it pretty clear he’ll be staying put, for now.
He said [Scottish Daily Mail, 22/09 print edition]: “He’s a very experienced goalkeeper and, like I said, we know we shouldn’t concede at that moment. But I have no doubts about him. Joe is a big honest guy and he’ll know as well as anyone, so we put it to the side and move on.”
Hart is undoubtedly in the twilight of his career. But the irony about his error was it came after some good form in recent weeks, becoming more comfortable with the makeshift defence in front of him.
Rodgers clearly has belief in him so there’ll be no radical change to one of the alternative options in Scott Bain or Benjamin Siegrist.
It’s also doubtful that Celtic will address the position mid-season in January unless a really quality option becomes available.
Next summer could be part of the succession plan to take over from Hart, so we’ll have to hope that Tuesday night’s mistake was a blip, rather than a sign of things to come at European level.
In other news, Brendan Rodgers delivers promising assessment of Reo Hatate’s Celtic future.
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