Danny Mills rips into polarising Everton star, compares him to forgotten PL man
Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford has dominated the recent media cycle on the blue half of Merseyside, and not in a good way.
The 25-year-old made yet another gaffe leading to a goal against Crystal Palace last weekend, although the Toffees’ recovered to win 3-1.
He then grabbed further headlines by claiming that he gets more criticism than other players because he is an England international.
It probably wasn’t the smartest thing for him to do after making a high-profile mistake, but here we are.
Now, former England international Danny Mills has had his say – once again – on the Three Lions’ number one.
“He has been under a little bit of pressure recently, because some of his performances haven’t been up to scratch,” he said on talkSPORT.
“He has made some mistakes, and when you do that you have to knuckle down. You have to come out and face the media and, sometimes, you just have to hold your hands up.
“When you start accusing pundits, media, and you start naming people, all that does is: they’re gonna be gunning for you now.
“My question is: does he get too emotional at times? Joe Hart, towards the end of it, he was too pumped up, there was too much adrenaline going through his body.”
Does Pickford need to be less emotional?
It certainly wouldn’t hurt, would it? His personality is both a blessing and a curse, because he galvanises his team-mates, but it also lends itself to errors.
The Hart comparison is an interesting one. He was England’s number one and winning Premier League titles at Manchester City, then it all went downhill.
Part of that could probably be attributed to his overconfidence, which in itself led to numerous high-profile mistakes.
Pickford will want to avoid that fate. There are similarities, so it will be interesting to see how he does moving forward.
In other Everton news, Carlo Ancelotti has reportedly been wowed by a Toffees youngster in training.