Karen Carney: Everton stopper Jordan Pickford is guaranteed starter for England, Chris Sutton questions
Karen Carney has insisted that Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford is a guaranteed starter for England at the World Cup.
The BBC pundit labelled the stopper as “outstanding” and pointed at Gareth Southgate’s loyalty behind her decision.
Pickford started in the 2-1 win over Switzerland on Saturday evening, picking up the Man of the Match award at Wembley.
Speaking live on BBC Radio 5 Live Monday Night Club, Carney threw up a passionate defence for the Toffees stopper.
“Pickford is a definite, 21 games, they’ve conceded six,” she said. “He stays loyal, Gareth Southgate, he doesn’t really change.
“Well, he hasn’t let him down for England, he was player of the match the other day, outstanding.”
Chris Sutton appeared to be bewildered by the claim, and looked to question whether that should be the case.
“Should he stay loyal?”
Strange.
Why should Southgate not be loyal?
Anyone with eyes can see that Pickford has been one of our best performers this season in the Premier League and has kept us in certain games with his efforts.
No matter which goalkeeper in the world was in-between the stick for the Toffees, they would concede goals regularly.
What can you do when your defence regularly just lets you down ahead of you, something that has happened far too often in recent months.
Sutton and his question was bang out of order, and Pickford would deserve the chance to start at the World Cup, he has never let anyone down on international level.
We would be delighted to see him between the sticks in Qatar, and it would be a huge achievement, especially looking at the form of Aaron Ramsdale and Nick Pope alongside him.
In other Everton news, the club are on a cliff edge and risk missing out on an “extraordinary” £10.4billion windfall share.
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