Despite historic penalty heroics and record-breaking clean sheets, England’s most-capped World Cup goalkeeper remains a perennial scapegoat. It is time to challenge the flawed narrative surrounding an international icon.
‘England will never win anything with Jordan Pickford in goal’
The past week we have seen England crash out of the World Cup by being defeated 2-1 by reigning World Champions Argentina. The post-mortem is in full force. Whose fault is it? Tuchel’s terrible subs? Apparently not. The fault has somehow landed at Jordan Pickford’s door.
Let’s get this out of the way. I love Jordan Pickford; I think the abuse he gets is very short-sighted and the ‘small arms’ shout is ridiculous in terms of how good and how crucial he is for club and country. He has single-handedly kept Everton in the Premier League numerous times. Yes, he has a mistake in him or a moment of madness, but that is part of the course for a goalkeeper. He has 91 caps for England and has played in more World Cup games than any other English player, ever.
Cast your minds back to World Cup 2018. England won their first penalty shootout in World Cup history, after Pickford had saved Carlos Bacca’s penalty for Eric Dier to finish the job and put England in the World Cup quarter-finals. In said quarter-finals, he was man of the match in a 2-0-win vs Sweden. Are you seeing a theme here?
Nations League 3rd/4th play-off in 2019. Pickford saved a penalty and SCORED one to win that game. Yes, it is only the Nations League, but the theme is apparent.
Euro 2020/21. England got to the final of the tournament. At the tournament, Pickford became the first goalkeeper in history to keep clean sheets in the first five games of a European Championship. In the final, England lost on penalties to a very average Italy team. In the Penalty shootout, Pickford saved 2 of the Italians' penalties. Jaden Sancho, Bukayo Saka and Marcus Rashford all missed their pens to condemn England to another penalty heartbreak.
USA TODAY SportsUSA TODAY Sports
The argument that Pickford is the problem is massively flawed in this instance. He has clearly done his job, the lads in front of him haven’t. I am not saying it is at the managers doorstep either, but Gareth Southgate’s tactics were questionable for not going for the win against Italy rather sit back. A team sits back for half the game; there is only going to be one inevitable conclusion.
2022 World Cup, he kept three clean sheets in the group stage before England were knocked out of the competition by a very good France team. Harry Kane missed a penalty that game, was he blamed for this? Not at all.
2024 Euros, Pickford broke Peter Shilton's clean sheet record at a major international tournament. In the quarter-finals, saved a Manuel Akanji penalty to help England win 5-3 on penalties. The superlatives for Pickford were clear to see; this didn’t stop the age-old ‘he needs replacing shouts’.
This brings me to this World Cup. England struggled over the line vs Mexico in a 3-2 win with 10 men. Valiant performances by the backline of England. My Man of the Match was without a shadow of doubt Jordan Pickford. Commanding his box, meeting every cross, frustrating Mexico and some excellent saves to boot. Semi-finals vs Argentina, England lose 2-1 after being 1-0 up.
The tactics of Tuchel came into full effect in this game. England had 6 defenders on the pitch and defended deep for the last 30 minutes to see out the win. This didn’t happen. Lionel Messi and his crossing took over and England lost. The first goal came from a rocket for Enzo Fernandez.
REUTERSREUTERS
I have seen people actually blame Pickford for this goal, watching it again it is the five statues standing in front of Pickford that don’t get out quick enough. Pickford made numerous excellent saves in that game and came out of the game as one of the players that could hold his head high.
Troy Deeney and a certain Chelsea fan on TALKSPORT have made this damning conclusion based on a scapegoat theory. There may be scapegoats; Jordan Pickford will and always does his job for England, as he has for the 91 times he has played. Maybe look at the above before making absurd comments and face facts that an Everton goalkeeper is actually one of the best, if not the best, England goalie of all time.