Shay Given suggests West Ham’s Joe Hart has received unfair criticism

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West Ham United have endured a torrid start to the season, but Shay Given has expressed sympathy for Joe Hart.

Shay Given has told The Alan Brazil Sports Breakfast on talkSPORT (broadcast 30th August 2017; 9:11 am) that Joe Hart has received some unfair criticism following West Ham’s start to the season.

Hart was one of a number of signings that gave Hammers fans belief going into the new campaign – but he, like the rest of his teammates, has endured a torrid time so far.

Slaven Bilic’s men went into the international break bottom of the Premier League table, with three defeats in three games and 10 goals conceded in that time.

The latest defeat came against Newcastle, who picked up their first points of the season with a 3-0 win at St James’ Park. But while the scoreline may look bad on paper for Hart in particular, Given has suggested that the England stopper should not be shouldering the majority of the responsibility.

“They’ve conceded too many goals, and the problem when you concede goals as a goalkeeper then, the fingers get pointed at you, but I’ve always said the goalkeeper’s only as good as the team he’s playing behind,” he told The Alan Brazil Sports Breakfast on talkSPORT.

“You look at the game most recently, Newcastle away, and I think he had no chance with any of the three goals and he made two or three, maybe four saves apart from a couple of one on one saves, he kept them in it at times in the game and then they lose the game 3-0 and it’s like ‘oh, what was Joe Hart doing?’

“You’ve got to look in the cold light of day at the goals and did he have any chance with them, and in my opinion, no. He made some other very good saves in the game, and I think there’s a bigger problem at West Ham and it’s not the goalkeeper.”

The nature of the defeats will certainly alarm West Ham fans. Southampton’s only league goals of the campaign came in the 3-2 win over the Irons, while, as mentioned, Newcastle were also on zero points before they took on Bilic’s men last weekend.

And while Hart has not exactly covered himself in glory since arriving in the summer, the Hammers supporters will surely be under no illusions that placing a considerable amount of the blame on him would be a mistake, and could prove costly as they try to sort themselves out.