Stats back Joe Hart for World Cup place

Spirits are high in the England camp as the World Cup year gets underway, but several questions remain over Fabio Capello's squad selection for South Africa 2010. An obvious one is "between the pipes", as supporters of one of England's Group C opponents might say.

I shared my thoughts a little while and came to the conclusion that Rob Green was the man for the job. Alongside him on the plane, I proposed that Joe Hart and Paul Robinson should be second and third choice respectively for World Cup 2010. I see no reason to change my goalkeeping trio, but the order is now a little different.

Since then, Birmingham City's on-loan stopper Hart has been in magnificent form, helping Alex McLeish's solid side to a record-smashing run of 12 unbeaten top flight games. And our friends at Castrol Football have been mucking about with some statistics which show exactly how good he's been. Obviously I'm only running these stats because I agree with their conclusion, just so you know.

The Castrol Rankings are based on the performances of every player in each of Europe's top five leagues. For goalkeepers, this means clean sheets, saves, distribution and the number and nature of goals conceded. And Joe Hart comes out on top of his English peers by a huge distance, checking in at number 28 overall.

His nearest rival - and I don't have any desire for him to go to South Africa - is Chris Kirkland. At number 263. Rob Green (275), David James (354) and Paul Robinson (451) complete the top five. Scott Carson doesn't rank because he plays in the Championship, where he belongs.

Hart also ranks as the third best goalkeeper in Europe, but when the four around him include Edwin Van Der Sar, Thomas Sorensen and Nelson Dida (Cedric Carrasso of Bordeaux is in there too) then perhaps it's safer just to take the English list in isolation. Apart from Kirkland and James, natch.

(Pic via Bleacher Report)