If Jordan Pickford is at his best when the chips are down, we could see a tournament masterclass from the England goalkeeper.
The run back after the win over Croatia showed just how uncharacteristically shaky Pickford was.
Looking uncomfortable with Thomas Tuchel’s order to play the ball out at the back at a fast pace, he followed through with both sides of it when the England manager criticized him for choosing to take the ball rather than quickly flick it to his right.
โYou know what you have to do, do as I told you!โ Tuchel told him.
It didn’t end there. Whisper it quietly, but he should have done better in the first half, when Martin Baturina equalized. Stronger hands were needed to deal with the long-range strike, which was admittedly allowed by the poor defense of England’s inexperienced backline.
Can you remember a similar performance from Pickford at a major tournament? Things like that just don’t happen to an Everton player. With 85 caps, the most of any goalkeeper in a major tournament, it’s such a player’s record that it’s hard to spot a bad player, especially when he’s under pressure.
But last week he hasn’t felt like vintage Pickford – and that’s putting some pressure on him.
Tuchel has no intention of changing his goalkeeper midway through the tournament, but Pickford’s place is under threat in the long term with the emergence of a confident James Trafford as an experienced Premier League player.
His chances of unseating Pickford at this summer’s tournament were dashed by his move to Manchester City, but he is seeking another transfer and if he becomes number one elsewhere, Pickford will face a major test for the first time since his debut in 2017. So now is not the time to lower standards.
After all, this is not a camp in England for the faint of heart. Assistant manager Anthony Barry’s scathing assessment at half-time was big news at home on ITV, but here in the team camp they really don’t know what all the fuss is about.
Tuchel managed to create an atmosphere that was both relaxed and ruthless. On Saturday, for example, he implored Jed Spence to “wake up” in a segment of a workout that the media was allowed to watch. Protecting the ego is not a priority.
So Pickford was told – in no uncertain terms – that what he served on opening night was not at the level we expected. This was probably what he needed to hear.
You see, Pickford is someone who plays better when he adopts a siege mentality. His former mentor Kevin Ball, the academy coach when the scrawny Pickford arrived at Sunderland, remembers the youngster needing a challenge when things seemed a little complacent.
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He played with him for a couple of years at Sunderland and there’s a quote from an interview we did before the last World Cup that sums up Pickford perfectly.
โHe had a very complex character, and I liked that,โ Ball said. I am paper.
“Sometimes I could manipulate it and I knew he would be tempted to turn around and think, ‘I’ll show you.’