Should England drop Joe Hart?

After Manchester City’s dismantling at the hands of Bayern Munich last night one of the big question marks after the game was the performance and general form of Joe Hart.

With England facing two crucial World Cup qualifiers next month and Hart on such patchy form is it worth Roy Hodgson taking a risk and leaving Hart on the bench?

The answer has to be no, yes the number of mistakes made by Hart are becoming more and more frequent and are most likely due to complacency and the fact that he has no competition, the very reason why England can’t afford to drop him.

Let’s say Hodgson did, who are the alternatives Fraser Forster at Celtic has looked pretty solid the few times I’ve seen him, but let’s face it he plays for Celtic and now Rangers are where they are is he really truly tested on a regular basis? The answer is no and the fact that he hasn't been capped yet is another reason why it would be too big a risk to start him. 

John Ruddy at Norwich would be the one most likely to come in but he’s got one cap, and remember what happened the last time an England manager started a keeper with one cap in a key qualifier, Scott Carson vs. Croatia in 2007 where we lost 3-2 and didn’t qualify for Euro 2008. While that's unlikely to happen again this round I think it would be a mistake to play an inexperienced keeper against Montenegro and Poland.  

So while nobody would be surprised if Hart was dropped it seems we simply can’t afford to, and the best thing we can hope for is the criticism he’s been getting will fire him up and make him re-focus and play more like the world class keeper we all know he can be.