David Moyes heaps praise on ‘key’ Jordan Pickford as Everton defence shines v West Ham United
David Moyes has heaped praise on Jordan Pickford, describing the Everton goalkeeper as “key” to the Toffees win over West Ham United.
Sean Dyche’s side ran out 1-0 winners at the London Stadium on Sunday (29 October) with Dominic Calvert-Lewin scoring the Toffees’ only goal to move Everton five points away from the relegation zone with their third Premier League win of the campaign.
While neither side fashioned many concrete chances in front of goal, Moyes was quick to praise the performances of both Pickford and the defence ahead of him for making life difficult for the Hammers inside the penalty area.
As quoted by the Liverpool Echo (30 October) he said: “Jordan made some saves at key moments, he did well. Everton defended well, they made it really difficult. We were looking for cut-backs and obviously, the stats will say we didn’t have many on target but it was mainly because of the blocking that Everton were doing.
“They’re very good at it and they made it hard for us to score. We were probably not as good as we’d like, that’s for sure. I think if anybody thought Everton were going to turn up here and make it easy for us they were mistaken.
“I think Everton defended really well and defended the box brilliantly well like I’d expect. They’ve probably been better on the road and they showed that here.”
Key moments
Every team want their goalkeeper to step up in the “key moments” of matches and while Pickford has plenty of critics, there is no doubt that the Everton number one has a knack for producing a performance whenever his side desperately needs him.
The 29-year-old only made two saves in the match as West Ham failed to test the England number one, only hitting the target with two of their 12 efforts on goal, but Pickford made sure that he wasn’t beaten by either effort in crucial moments of the game.
In front of the England international, both Jarrad Branthwaite and James Tarkowski were in inspired form as they made life incredibly difficult for the Hammers’ attacking talent to help the Toffees register their second clean sheet of the Premier League campaign.
If Dyche’s side want to avoid relegation again this year, they are going to need their defensive unit to provide a platform for the attacking talent in the squad to build upon. In recent weeks, they have done exactly that and should this level of performance continue in the coming weeks, Everton will have little to worry about.
In other Everton news, Vinny O’Connor has revealed that there could yet be a twist in the Toffees potential points deduction