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Joe Hart 37 appearances (8/10) – I have been given the duty to start our end of season ratings, so I feel a lot of pressure to start this out with a bang! Speaking of pressure, Joe Hart did enough to put some early pressure on himself this season (see what I did there?!).
If we were to act like those first 7-10 games didn’t happen this season, Joe would have had a hell of a season for himself. From Joe "why the hell did you come out so far?" Hart to Joe "WHAT A SAVE" Hart I think he richly deserves some R&R in Brazil. Kidding, he needs to perform! Back to Joe as the first example of Pellegrini’s man management, Hart was taken out of the lineup and given a grownup "timeout". Instead of letting that affect his play by the time he returned to the lineup, he took it as an eye-opening experience and got back to his England’s #1 form upon his return to the starting XI.
For goalies, it truly a love-hate thing with fans, you make the saves and no one notices you. You allow some gift goals; you’re the scapegoat of all the fans. With a solid defensive unit in front of him, there were games Joe wasn’t tested, but he had some spectacular games, none more important than the saves made in the Everton game, which essentially saved our season. He averaged about a 6 in my game-to-game ratings (loose estimate looking back), but his overall grade is higher because of how important him getting back to form was to our season.
