Joe Hart can make Manchester City return like Yaya Toure did, says Shay Given
Thursday 26 January 2017 12:40, UK
Shay Given believes there can be a way back for Joe Hart at Manchester City after seeing Yaya Toure play his way into Pep Guardiola's plans.
Current City goalkeeper Claudio Bravo is under intense pressure after conceding from the last six shots on target he has faced and has kept just five clean sheets in his 23 appearances since moving from Barcelona last summer.
Hart, who is contracted to City until 2019, was loaned to Italian side Torino for the season because Guardiola felt Bravo was more suited to the style of play he wanted to adopt.
Toure was frozen out at the start of the season but has come back to play in 12 of City's last 14 games - scoring four goals - and former City keeper Given thinks Hart could come back into contention too.
Speaking on Premier League Daily, Given said: "It's easy to sit here and say Joe would have saved that, not saved that or punched that cross away.
"It was a tough thing for Joe and I've said before that I don't think Pep gave him a chance or the opportunity to show he could play in the system with the philosophy of playing out from the back.
"That's the frustrating thing for Joe because he didn't really want to leave Manchester City. He wanted to stay at the club.
"He's doing well at Torino now but I don't see why there's not a way back for him. We saw this year with Yaya Toure he was out of the picture.
"He wasn't even part of the Champions League squad, he wasn't training with the team and he supposedly wasn't fit enough.
"Now he has shown Guardiola he's good enough to be in the team and he's starting every week.
"For me, there's no reason why Guardiola can't bring Joe back, if not in this window then in the summer. He would definitely be big competition for Bravo to start."
Given has sympathy for Bravo, suggesting his form has been made out to be worse than it has been, but insists the 33-year-old must adapt to English football.
Given, who played 69 games for City between 2009 and 2011, added: "He has to [adapt] - and he has to do it pretty quickly. They paid £17m for him and got rid of a great goalkeeper in Joe.
"He's been coming under pressure with balls into the box that he maybe didn't have in Spain and he's been asked a few questions he maybe hasn't had the answers for.
"He has to adapt and De Gea's a great example. He came in and there were question marks over him.
"He has proven not just to people in this country but all around the world that he's one of the best goalkeepers.
"You could break all the goals down and yes, there's a number of goals where Bravo will probably hold his hands up and think he should have done better.
"There are a lot of goals he's getting blamed for as well where he had no chance and the problem is the media - and maybe some of the fans as well - are on his case massively.
"Every goal that goes in, the finger seems to get pointed at the goalkeeper. I think there's a lot going on in front of the goalkeeper as well that has to be put right.
"I think it's the easiest thing in the world when they've conceded four at Everton to blame the keeper but there's lots of other things went wrong that day, not just Bravo's performance."
