When Stoke meet Man City, Jack Butland’s opposite number will throw his quality into stark relief

Richard Jolly notes the confluence at play when Stoke City cross Manchester City, as Joe Hart's club and country deputies square off, one in far better form than the other.

Stoke City keeper Jack Butland shown during his team's League Cup quarter-final win over Sheffield Wednesday on Tuesday night. Carl Recine / Action Images / Reuters / December 1, 2015

The common denominator may be conspicuous by his absence. If Joe Hart does not stage a rapid recovery from his hamstring injury to figure at the Britannia Stadium on Saturday, a tale of two cities offers a comparison of his deputies for club and country.

Willy Caballero and Jack Butland probably rank as opposites. The Englishman is staking a case to take Hart’s place. The Argentine is not.

Butland is Stoke City's putative player of the year. Caballero is a weak link who could cost Manchester City dearly. They won 4-1 at the Britannia Stadium last season, but that is their only league victory in seven visits.

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Faith, as much as money, has been invested in Hart’s rivals. Caballero played for Manuel Pellegrini at Malaga and they were reunited when the Chilean paid an initial £4.4 million (Dh24m) for him in 2014.

Butland has been on Stoke’s books since January 2013 but the most significant sign of Stoke’s belief in him came in March.

The former Birmingham City goalkeeper was given a new contract. He had not asked for one. Stoke, however, were planning for the future.

They realised Asmir Begovic was set to leave in the summer – for Chelsea, eventually – and were keen to promote from within. After a peripatetic existence of loan spells and stints on the bench, Butland was installed as the first choice.

He has been arguably the Premier League's outstanding goalkeeper this season, saving 79 per cent of shots and only conceding an average of a goal a game. He is why Stoke, despite being the lowest scorers, are nine points clear of the relegation zone.

Stoke’s wisdom in tying him down has become apparent. Mark Hughes has been quick to state he will not follow Begovic’s path to an elite club. “He’s not going anywhere,” the Welshman said this week. “I wouldn’t even place a value on him. People are aware of him and have been for a long time.”

Indeed Butland, who was in England’s Euro 2012 squad as a 19-year-old understudy, has been touted for the top for years.

He figures in Michael Calvin’s terrific book The Nowhere Men, a story of talent-spotters. Liverpool’s chief scout Mel Johnson followed him, watching him produce an error-strewn display as an 18-year-old keeper as Cheltenham lost 3-0 at Southend United.

“What worries me is his heart,” Johnson told Calvin. “Does he have that inner strength?” Johnson doubted if the hype was justified. Four years later, Butland has provided an answer in the affirmative.

He is a decade Caballero’s junior but could be a role model to the Argentine. “I trust a lot in Willy Caballero,” Pellegrini said last week. Few others in England do.

City have conceded 20 goals in his 12 starts for them; his only clean sheet came 436 days ago. His distribution is excellent but his shot-stopping is mixed and his frailty against the aerial ball is gruesomely apparent. City’s 4-1 defeat to Tottenham Hotspur turned when he punched at thin air and Toby Alderweireld headed in Erik Lamela’s free kick. Stoke, a tall team with set-piece specialists, should examine his inability to claim crosses.

“I did really well in another team and I believe in myself that I can do the same thing here,” Caballero said last week. He was too realistic to claim he has done himself justice in a City shirt. An ever obstinate Pellegrini attributed Hart’s fine form over the past 16 months to the competition his recruit has provided, though the Englishman only faces one challenge for his place. It is not from Caballero.

“He is one of the top three of four keepers in the world at the moment and I wish him all the best to keep improving to become No 1,” Caballero said of Hart. Butland, however, has his eyes on Hart’s England jersey.

“He is almost an immovable object at the minute but I want to play,” he said last month.

A blend of ambition and excellence make him a genuine contender.

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