Jason Jones

Wed 12 February 2020 16:48, UK

Danny Mills has slammed Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford for his “naive” behaviour. 

The 25-year-old stopper has come under fire in recent weeks after a number of questionable incidents, including a blunder that allowed Christian Benteke to score a consolation in the 3-1 win over Crystal Palace at the weekend.

The international number one has subsequently made comments suggesting that “everybody hates you” when you are an England player, singling out Gary Neville in particular as a pundit who unfairly criticises him.

But Mills has questioned the wisdom of his comments.

Speaking to Football Insider, he said: “Jordan Pickford’s been a little bit naive coming out and starting to pick out pundits and the media. All you do is heap more pressure on yourself.

“There are lots of people who are not willing you to do badly but are quite happy to highlight any sort of mistakes. Sometimes people outside of football believe these players seem a little bit entitled, whatever it might be.

“He’s made some high-profile errors, he’s made some mistakes and I think the worst thing you can do – he was frustrated and didn’t like some of the criticism – but coming out fighting with words and retaliating in that way is not the best way to do it.”

Is Mills in the right here?

First and foremost, you can’t help feeling that Pickford has a point.

The stopper does seem to come in for a lot of flak, and there is almost certainly an element of his international status exacerbating scrutiny against him.

That being said, he hasn’t really got a leg to stand on at the moment.

The goal he conceded against Palace was a shocker, and as per the Premier League themselves, that’s the second error he’s made leading directly to a goal this season.

With that in mind, the best thing he can do to silence his critics is to cut the mistakes out of his game, rather than trying to confront them in the press.

In other Everton news, Carlo Ancelotti green lights swoop for 27y/o, Toffees lead hunt.