CORNELLA, SPAIN - JUNE 07: Jordan Pickford of England gestures during the UEFA European Qualifiers Grp K MD3, match between Andorra and England at RCDE Stadium on June 07, 2025 in Cornella, Barcelona, Spain. (Photo By Javier Borrego/Europa Press via Getty Images)
Jordan Pickford gestures during match between Andorra and England at RCDE Stadium on June 07, 2025 in Cornella, Barcelona, Spain
Did you ever hear about the goalkeeper who kept a clean sheet but was only awarded 3/10 in someone’s player ratings? Well welcome to 2025 when turns out for England.
Against Andorra, Pickford, who has won all his caps while with the Blues (note to those trying to use Jarrad Branthwaite’s omission from Thomas Tuchel’s first squad as an ‘excuse’ to move), turned out for the 76th time for the Three Lions.
The 31-year-old, who had already overhauled World Cup winner Gordon Banks (73 caps), moved ahead of David Seaman and Joe Hart (both 75 caps) to make the second most appearances for England all-time after Peter Shilton (125).
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Pickford, who has already broken Shilton’s record for the most clean sheets for an England goalkeeper in major tournaments has never statistically been deemed at fault for a single goal in a competitive international, with Opta confirming that a mistake against Belgium in a friendly match at Wembley on his 60th appearance on March 24, 2024, was the only such occasion.
But when it really mattered, in last year’s European Championship final – having saved two penalties in the shoot-out against Italy in the previous final only to finish on the losing side – the Everton ace produced an outstanding display that almost held a rampant Spain side at bay, ensuring it wasn’t fiesta time for his opponents long before the final whistle.
Either side of substitute Cole Palmer’s equaliser, Pickford was like a bouncer on a nightclub door as he twice denied entry to Spain’s 17-year-old wonderkid Lamine Yamal who had teed up the opener while also punching away several dangerous crosses with his side under the cosh.
Yet when he is left untested by defensive-minded minnows Andorra, the baseless nitpicking and skewed agendas, which both Neville Southall and the late Kevin Campbell dubbed “a witch hunt”, somehow continue.
Most observers were fair when it came assessing Pickford being largely untested. In the Telegraph, Mike McGrath gave him a 6, writing: “Had nothing to do apart from keep his concentration. No saves to make in the end for the England No 1, who has Dean Henderson pushing for starts.”
He received the same score in the Daily Mail from Kieran Gill who remarked: “Tuchel has told Pickford he must prove why he should be England’s No 1, though that’s hard to do when Andorra didn’t even have two shots to rub together.”
Slightly less charitable were Amos Murphy in the Express who gave Pickford a 5, stating: “Tuchel could’ve probably started himself between the sticks and it wouldn’t have mattered much. Jordan Pickford's biggest takeaway from this match will likely be the tan he picked up while standing about without much to do in the Barcelona sunshine,” while he also got the same mark from Goal’s Richie Mills who said: “The Everton hero had virtually nothing to do as he watched his team-mates stutter their way to an uninspiring victory.”
At talkSPORT though, a couple of writers decided that Pickford’s display only merited a 3/10. It’s probably just a ‘shock jock’ approach and you could say I’ve taken the bait but as someone who watched him play in all of his club appearances last season and look him in the eye during interviews, as ECHO Everton reporter, this correspondent feels duty bound to leap to his defence.
The reason for the ridiculously low score was that Pickford: “had nothing to do in his performance, but dropped down to a 3/10 for failing to do anything special with the ball at his feet.” Pardon me? Just what was he expected to do?
Perform tricks like a performing seal? Nutmeg a few opponents? Dribble box to box and score like Everton’s Jermaine Beckford against Chelsea? Hoof the ball upfield and try and chip his opposite number in Andorra’s net from distance?
What a load of absolute nonsense. It makes a mockery of doing player ratings.
One of this correspondent’s regular matchday duties is to do them for the ECHO. For context, 3/10 was what I gave Pickford for his nightmare display at Tottenham Hotspur last August when he was guilty of an absolute howler – which he owned up to – to gift Spurs’ second goal caused by a loose first touch on the wet surface when receiving a back pass from James Tarkowki.
I’ve even gone lower with a 2 when Everton were hit for six at Stamford Bridge in April last year, when Pickford held his hand up for the glaring error he made to gift the ball to Cole Palmer for hat-trick as he kicked a right-foot effort straight at the Chelsea man from a Branthwaite back pass, but in the same month I awarded him a perfect 10 when the Blues defeated Liverpool at Goodison Park for the first time in 13-and-a-half years.
During 2024/25, Pickford received five separate scores of 9 in the ECHO player ratings, against Newcastle United, both home and away; away to West Ham United; away to Manchester City and away to Fulham. He’s been a performer at the top of his game for a long time now, arguably doing more than any other individual to keep Everton in the Premier League in recent years and proving to be their best player in his position since the legendary aforementioned Southall, who was the world number one at the peak of his powers.
Ahead of the Andorra game, England manager Thomas Tuchel said: “All three of our goalkeepers are not involved in European football, they’re not used to European football which would be ideal.
“It’s not a problem, Jordan behaves and trains at the highest level and we’re very, very happy with him.
“He’s doing everything at the moment to keep his place because he feels that Dean stepped up and found another level, another gear. He also found a title and a decisive role at Crystal Palace. He got an important and vital title for his club and he was a big figure in this campaign. This helped his confidence a lot.
“Then we have the very young James Trafford, who played a fantastic, record-breaking campaign with Burnley and got clean sheets. Hopefully he can prove himself next season in the Premier League and then the race is on. It will always be a fight for every position, there is no exception for the goalkeepers.
“At the moment Jordan is in a good place mentally and performance-wise. It helped him to stabilise himself at Everton with the change of manager with David Moyes he became very, very stable and also emotionally stable and we’re very happy with that at the moment.”
Pretenders to his throne with England like Dean Henderson, who produced heroics in Crystal Palace’s FA Cup final win but shouldn’t have still been on the field against Manchester City having handling outside his area earlier in the game, have had their moments, but in truth it’s insulting to seriously question Pickford’s position given the stellar levels of consistency he brings when it comes to levels of performance.
But as Taylor Swift would say: “The haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate,” and like her, when it comes to ‘The English disease’ of scrutinising his every move, the Everton man just has to “shake it off.”