Stuart Pearce has suggested that West Ham goalkeeper Joe Hart lacks “nastiness” and needs to adopt a ruthless streak if he wishes to remain as the England national teams first choice shot-stopper.
The 73 times England capped keeper Hart has seen his position questioned over the past 16 months after being deemed surplus to requirements at Manchester City by Pep Guardiola at the beginning of last season.
He went on to spend last season on loan with Torino in Italy before joining West Ham this summer until the end of the season.
Hart has committed some high profile mistakes during recent years including during Euro 2016 games against Wales and Iceland and conceded two goals from free kicks during the Three Lions World Cup qualifier against Scotland.
While commenting on the performances of Hart, Pearce said, “I spoke to Joe a while back and I said to him that at the Euros last summer, the ball went into the back of the net against Iceland and he didn’t get up and berate his back line. I played in front of Peter Shilton and for 90 minutes, he would rip your head off for a clean sheet.
“Even when you were 5-0 up, he’d be at you all the time and I think Joe needs more nastiness in his game that says to his defenders ‘you’ve got to get me a clean sheet and to do that, I’m going to get onto you a little bit more because I want to stay in this team’. [The criticism] comes with the scrutiny of playing for England.
“His form has dropped and it was poor in the European Championships, and he admits that. He’s a very honest guy. The challenge is coming from Jack Butland and if he didn’t have those injuries and was out of Stoke’s team for a while, it might be a little bit closer at the moment in time. The emergence of Jordan Pickford and Tom Heaton as well means he’s under a bit of pressure, but he’s got to rise to that challenge.”
