I also think this is the case. Cannot imagine Pep gave Joe different instructions given he was wanting to embed the system with very little time to do it. If this was the case then Joe (legend) can have no complaints.I think Hart will be dropped today.
Pep wants players who follow his instructions, against Arsenal he clearly instructed Willy to play from the back. I can't see him telling Hart at half time "Joe, you now just hoof it up the pitch". So did Hart just disobey Pep? If so I'd be willing to put money on Joe being sold.
I was gutted when James left.Harts our best keeper by a long distance, but Pep likes his sweeper keepers, Joe needs to addapt simple as that.
I recall Bobby used to have us play out the back at times and Joe managed to do it, but then he had Vinny and Joleon to give it to who were comfy on the ball, passing to nando , mangala and otter has seen goals given away last year, so understand harts hesitance to do it but maybe having stones there will help.
I have only ever been gutted to see a keeper go when Coton did, but unlike then I expect a better quality keeper to arrive than Eike Immel
I will be disappointed if Pep doesn't give Joe a crack at keeping hold of his place in the team but I'm not expecting him to. Something looked wrong with what happened in the second half of that match. It was so odd to see Joe make virtually no effort to pass it out and his body language didn't look right. I assumed he had already been told that he's either not in Pep's plans or that he is in a real fight to save his City career and he hadn't responded well to what he was told. I'm old fashioned, it baffles me that any manager would be more bothered about a keeper's distribution than his ability to stop the ball going into the net but clearly it's Pep's way and he will be trusted by the club to do whatever he wants. It'll help if he's winning matches because if we are losing and he has replaced Joe with someone who is perceived to be costing us matches, I think he will find patience, in the stands at least, will wear pretty thin pretty quickly and that will be no good for anyone. Personally I think he would be better bringing in a better option than Willy this window if possible, giving Joe a chance and then if it doesn't work out at least supporters will have seen that he gave him a chance and that there is a need to replace him and he will have someone ready to come in.I think Hart will be dropped today.
Pep wants players who follow his instructions, against Arsenal he clearly instructed Willy to play from the back. I can't see him telling Hart at half time "Joe, you now just hoof it up the pitch". So did Hart just disobey Pep? If so I'd be willing to put money on Joe being sold.
There appears to be a witch hunt started by sports pundits and newspapers after his display in thr Euros (they had to have someone to blame), why have so many blue's jumped on the bandwagon. Joe is an excellent keeper that's had a wobble, he has saved our team a lot more than he has lets us down, time to get behind him no matter what happens.
Now there's someone Pep would have flogged within an hour.I was gutted when James left.
Exactly passing out to defenders just seems to put the responsibility onto them to make a decent pass and they can easily be closed down by a pressing forward team.
The hoof to half way line by a goalie who is somewhat protected to some extent and even if it is not pretty or always effective, does put the ball 50 yards from the goal and not the edge of the penalty area.
On the official website the part of the training match shown on video did not have Hart playing in either goal, although he was around at the end.
Hart is not perfect but to drop an established player in this first game and play Willie would concern me whether Pep has won dozens of trophies or none.
Eight hours to kick off and counting.........
I will be disappointed if Pep doesn't give Joe a crack at keeping hold of his place in the team but I'm not expecting him to. Something looked wrong with what happened in the second half of that match. It was so odd to see Joe make virtually no effort to pass it out and his body language didn't look right. I assumed he had already been told that he's either not in Pep's plans or that he is in a real fight to save his City career and he hadn't responded well to what he was told. I'm old fashioned, it baffles me that any manager would be more bothered about a keeper's distribution than his ability to stop the ball going into the net but clearly it's Pep's way and he will be trusted by the club to do whatever he wants. It'll help if he's winning matches because if we are losing and he has replaced Joe with someone who is perceived to be costing us matches, I think he will find patience, in the stands at least, will wear pretty thin pretty quickly and that will be no good for anyone. Personally I think he would be better bringing in a better option than Willy this window if possible, giving Joe a chance and then if it doesn't work out at least supporters will have seen that he gave him a chance and that there is a need to replace him and he will have someone ready to come in.