Neville Southall has say on polarising Everton star
Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford has been grabbing all the headlines over the past week for his controversial comments on the criticism he receives.
The 25-year-old appears to believe that he gets placed under fiercer scrutiny than others because he is an England international.
Whether you believe that what he said is correct or not, there’s no arguing with the fact that he has only drawn more attention on him and his performances.
The former Sunderland man would do well to listen to some of the advice he has received over the past week.
The latest knowledgable figure to have his say on the Pickford situation is Toffees goalkeeping legend Neville Southall.
“If it was someone like Peter Schmeichel criticising you you’d perhaps think ‘fair enough’ but I wouldn’t lose any sleep over the others,” he told the Liverpool Echo.
“Gary Neville has a good knowledge of football and all the others have but you’ve got to remember there was a fella behind all of them who made them look good.
“The best way for a goalkeeper to answer anyone is to play well, that’s it. You don’t have to say anything, you don’t have to do anything else. Just go and do your job.
“Jordan has got a choice to make. He either moans about it or gets on and changes it because you can change people’s opinions with your performances.
“Jordan is in the England squad on merit and he’s playing for England on merit but unfortunately in this country as soon as you do anything good you get hammered. You know when you’re doing well because you get tons of stick.”
Has Southall got a point, here?
He has, yes. He’s absolutely correct that Pickford has to make a choice about how he proceeds moving forward when he does receive criticism.
Will he continue to take it so personally and fire back every time it occurs? Or will he use it as motivation to go on and improve?
That’s the big question he needs to answer, and we’ll see what he opts to do. But he could do a lot worse than listening to someone like Southall.
If you play for England you are under a microscope, that’s undeniable. He needs to learn how to deal with that.
In other Everton news, the club are reportedly yet to open contract talks with a veteran Toffee.