Everton: Jordan Pickford backed to retain England no.1 shirt despite being injured
Joe Thomas believes getting injured may have been the “best thing” for Everton ace Jordan Pickford’s chances of being England no.1 at the World Cup.
The Toffees stopper missed the most recent international break with a thigh injury, which allowed manager Gareth Southgate the opportunity to try Nick Pope between the sticks against Italy and Germany.
But the Newcastle goalkeeper made some errors in the 3-3 draw at Wembley on Monday night, and Liverpool ECHO journalist Thomas feels that only strengthened Pickford’s grip on the number one shirt for the upcoming tournament.
“Turns out the best thing Jordan Pickford could do to answer those questioning his place as England’s #1 wasn’t to help the side to a World Cup semi-final, Euros final, be consistently excellent, win save of the season or start this campaign in superb form.
It was to… get injured,” he said on his personal Twitter account.
Facts
Tell them Joe.. tell them. Everything he said in that tweet is absolute facts and anyone who watches Everton and England regularly will know it.
The problem is that when Pickford makes any type of error it gets magnified and scrutinised to the nth degree and it makes people question his abilities, whereas nobody cares if Pope makes an error.
But Pickford has been exceptional for the last 18 months or so and even longer than that for England and fully deserves his place as the starting goalkeeper for both club and country
It brings you to that old saying of, “you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone” and that’s the situation England were in before Monday’s friendly with Germany.
They now know what it looks like without Pickford and fans will be absolutely delighted by the time the opening game with Iran comes along and they see Pickford on the teamsheet with the number one on his back.