Journalist stunned by what he saw Everton star Jordan Pickford do in England training at World Cup
Journalist Dominic King was stunned by what he saw Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford do in training for England at the World Cup on Wednesday (7 December).
Pickford has been arguably the best goalkeeper at the World Cup tournament over the last month, keeping three consecutive clean sheets to help the Three Lions to the quarter-finals against France this weekend (10 December).
But while watching England training in preparation for that big game, King wrote in his Daily Mail column (8 December) that he saw Pickford performing a drill and was simply stunned by his reflexes and ability between the sticks.
“Each day they come out 15 minutes ahead of the main group and the drill to warm him up consists of Margetson, Nick Pope and Aaron Ramsdale volleying a flurry balls out of their hands at him from close range, from a variety of different angles,” he recalled.
“Pickford starts with his back turned, then spins into action. Once he has been worked, Pope and Ramsdale repeat the drill.
“Yesterday, Pickford had a run of facing 40 such shots and caught every single one. It was as if he had Velcro on his palms and the ball was actually made of cushion but, really, it was showing his speed, strength and the standard of his reflexes.”
The best
Everton had a really long spell over the years where we struggled for a top class goalkeeper, but that is exactly what Jordan Pickford is these days.
He was arguably the biggest reason for the club surviving in the Premier League last season and avoiding relegation, and this season his performances have continued to shine, leading to interest from the likes of Chelsea.
But what everyone is only just waking up to is what Everton fans have known for years. His distribution is excellent, his leadership has come on leaps and bounds, his reflexes are excellent and he’s great at claiming crosses too.
People only tend to pay attention to his mistakes for some reason, but the facts are that Pickford is the best England goalkeeper since David Seaman at the very least, and he deserves all the praise in the world.
Hopefully he can return from the World Cup as a world champion, but also with his form still great because we’re going to need him more than ever in the second half of the season.