By Gareth Southgate’s own admission, there was a lot to weigh up before deciding who should play in goal for England in their latest World Cup qualifier here on Friday night. Finally, though, he decided there was not enough evidence to think Joe Hart’s time was up and never mind the fact Peter Shilton, England’s record appearance-maker, is among those saying it is time for a change. Hart will keep his place and was even given early notice of the decision. “I told him a couple of days ago he was playing – the right thing to do,” the manager explained.
The rest of the team had to wait until after the team’s delayed flight arrived in Malta on Thursday evening but Southgate decided Hart should be approached separately bearing in mind all the scrutiny surrounding the goalkeeper’s performances for West Ham and, last season, Torino.
“England’s No2”, Old Trafford had crowed when Hart’s return to the Premier League began with a 4-0 defeat at Manchester United on the opening weekend. On the contrary, he is still No1 in Southgate’s eyes, and it is not being disparaging to think Malta might be obliging opponents for a goalkeeper who has not kept a clean sheet in his last 23 club games, stretching back to Torino’s 0-0 draw against Sassuolo on 8 January.
Malta, to put it into context, have managed a grand total of five competitive victories since their records began with a 6-1 defeat against Denmark in 1962. They are 190th in Fifa’s world rankings, tucked directly behind Bangladesh, Brunei Darussalam and the Cook Islands, and lost 5-1 against Scotland in the first match of this qualifying campaign at the National Stadium. “England are top, Malta are bottom, it’s a very difficult task,” Malta’s manager, Pietro Ghedin, formerly in charge of Italy’s women’s team, said.
Hart, in other words, should not be overly busy, even if it was hardly an emphatic result – a 2‑1 win for Kevin Keegan’s team – the last time England played here, a warm-up match for Euro 2000 best remembered for Alan Shearer breaking an opponent’s nose with a stray elbow.
Yet it still represents a calculated gamble on Southgate’s part to resist any temptation to give Jack Butland of Stoke City a chance given Hart’s early difficulties since joining West Ham, conceding 10 goals in his first three appearances.
“From my point of view, we’re only three games into the season,” Southgate said. “His club have had a difficult start to the season. But Joe has been excellent for me. We’ve conceded only the two goals in Scotland in this group, so I think he’s rewarded me with the performances I wanted. I don’t think anyone else has had an opportunity yet to stake a strong enough claim to take over. But Joe knows there is competition for places and that is healthy.”
What Southgate did not say was that he and the rest of England’s coaching staff did feel Hart was culpable, to varying degrees, for the two free-kicks from Leigh Griffiths that earned Scotland a draw at Hampden Park in June.
The feeling at St George’s Park is that Hart has suffered because of the way he was marginalised, then moved out, at Manchester City and the bruising way that Pep Guardiola made it a priority to find a replacement goalkeeper. Yet Hart still has the backing of his national team manager for the time being and if everything goes according to plan, will keep his place when Slovakia visit Wembley on Monday.
Does Hart need the confidence boost of knowing he is still first-choice for England? “Whether he does or he doesn’t, I think it’s important,” Southgate said. “There was an opportunity to make a change here and then change it back [on Monday] but that would just have created more speculation and uncertainty.”