Jordan Pickford is reason Everton have been mess in previous seasons – Darren Bent
Everton largely had Jordan Pickford to thank for some stunning performances to help keep them away from relegation last season.
The England international was on another level as the Toffees scrapped for their lives and Premier League future to ultimately keep their heads above water with one game to spare.
Despite his epic displays between the sticks towards the end of the 2021-22 campaign, talkSPORT pundit Darren Bent believes the 28-year-old has also been the cause of the troubles at Everton at times.
“He could be playing at a club with Champions League football but you’ve got to think that there has been previous seasons where he is the reason they’re in this mess,” Bent said.
“Some of the mistakes he’s made, you can’t all of a sudden start blaming the rest of the players and not him. There has been times at Everton where he has made some serious howlers and it’s cost them points.”
Nonsense
This argument could be made for every goalkeeper in world football because it is the only position on the pitch where a mistake always leads to a goal.
No shot-stopper has a perfectly clean record but they get villainised whenever the slightest misjudgement or lapse in concentration occurs because the consequences are enormous.
Bent should just back off here and realise that Pickford has won us a lot more points than he has lost and if it weren’t for him, we’d be preparing to play in the second division for the first time in more than half a century.
He won’t know what it feels like to make a catastrophic error that leads to conceding a goal ss he played up front during his career and there you can miss eight shots a game but be the hero if you bundle one in.
He really isn’t qualified to make a judgement on Pickford or any goalkeeper for that matter until he’s given it a good go himself.