‘For his own good’ – Merson urges Ancelotti to keep Pickford out of Everton side
Paul Merson believes Carlo Ancelotti must keep Jordan Pickford out of the Everton XI to protect himself and the team after a number of errors.
Pickford missed the midweek victory over Leeds United with an injury and substitute goalkeeper Robin Olsen stepped up with aplomb as he made a number of vital saves to ensure the Blues came away from Elland Road with all three points.
Olsen will keep his place at Manchester United on Saturday with the England number one yet to recover from his injury and Merson believes he now needs a regular run in the side with Pickford struggling for form, as shown against Leicester City on January 27 when he let Youri Tielemans’ tame shot from distance squirm in to give up the Blues advantage.
Writing in his Daily Star column he said: “Jordan Pickford needs to be taken out of the Everton team – for his own good.
“He’s been very fortunate to keep on getting a chance because he’s been making big mistakes consistently in games.”
He added:”Everton could be even higher in the table without Pickford’s mistakes. They have been really costly.”
Ominous signs
Stats don’t often lie and they do not paint Pickford in a particularly favourable light.
According to Wyscout, Everton are actually very good protectors of their goal with Pickford only facing 3.8 shots per 90 which does not rank in the top half of the Premier League.
However his prevented goals per 90 reads at an alarming figure of -0.09, a figure which is worse than all but three in the division.
There also seems to be a key weakness in his game for the opposition to target.
He has conceded 0.33 per 90 from outside the penalty area which marks him as the fourth worst for this metric.
Wyscout’s overall rankings for goalkeepers this season has Pickford sitting 17th out of 21 – for context, those four other stoppers come from sides in the bottom seven.
That is pretty appalling company to be keeping and it is a real concern that for all of their defensive solidity and work going forwards the Blues are being undone by individual errors at the back, namely from Pickford.
As a club with aspirations of challenging for Europe and the Premier League elite Everton cannot afford to be carrying passengers.
Ancelotti must be wary of this and stick with Olsen until a new goalkeeper is found in the summer.
In other Everton news, our view on the importance of this returning Blues ace.