Jordan Pickford: A defence of our keeper

It cannot be disputed he has made mistakes but he would simply not be England's number one choice if he is as bad as he is portrayed by some.

He is very good at penalties, very good at kicking it long and doesn't make too many mistakes. The vast majority of saves he is simply expected to make but he is never a calm reassuring figure and not an imposing figure. His biggest flaws which a lot of our keepers tend to have had had over the years is his inability to read a ball over the top, staying on his line at corners and crosses and his constant choice to punch haphazardly shots and crosses away which ought to be routine catches

Although in his defence, because he is the last line of defence, errors in front of him, and there have been plenty of those, can make him look like he is to blame.

If you trust the men in front of you, you don't expect them to blunder and put you on the spot. There is not enough communication between the defensive unit in general, but I dare say that will improve under Carlo and Duncan.

I never advocated shooting him, just my opinion that we could do with an improvement in the keeper dept.

Ho ho ho.

Unless Ancelotti knows a cracker in Napoli Res. or another of his many Ex's. It's over to you Mr Brands - find a modern day Southall at Bury...or where ever.

I'd far rather keep him and find a good left sided centre back. One with pace, who can lead and can pass. Here's hoping.

Take McCarthy at Soton, he's had less clean sheets than Gunn but the team concede a lot less goals.

How about foster at Watford, they've had as many clean sheets in the EPL as we have had and the likes of Kepa & De Gea have had less but you'd rate these two higher due to all round game.

Yes Pope has the highest clean sheet stat but you'd expect that in a team which gives up 70% possession and for the most part circle the wagons around him.

For me the best EPL keeper is Schmeichel. 7 clean sheets ranks top along with Pope but this is also in a team which plays flowing, open, attacking football.

Age wise, at 25 Pickford is easily the youngest of the better keepers in our league. At 21 Ramsdale at Bournemouth is one to watch.

Have you seen him recently, I'm not exactly a Jack Sprat myself, but Nev's like the Gable End of a Shopping Mall or a Precinct! 😋💙

Sorry Nev, if you are reading this, no offence meant!

He's certainly not perfect but a. he's very good b. another Top 4-6 team would almost certainly take him off our hands, and most importantly c. there are many other positions in the current team (possibly 10 of them) that need improving more than the keeper does.

He doesn't seem to understand that there is a time and a place for those low, drilled flat kicks. When you have nobody up front you are far better off getting some height on the ball to give your strikers more time to get into position.

It is also very unsettling just looking at the way he kicks the ball when he's dealing with a back pass. Most keepers will calmly put their foot through the ball with minimal follow-through. Pickford swings his boot at the ball like he's trying to win a ‘longest drive' competition. Both feet leave the floor. It's out of control and totally unnecessary.

All that said, if he played for Liverpool I seriously think he would be getting assists every week. As soon as he gets the ball he is looking for a killer pass. He can deliver it and the likes of Mane and Salah would be off and running as soon as Pickford had the ball. Hopefully that's something we can look at doing once Ancelotti has his feet under the table.

Nick Pope, far and away a better keeper than Pickford.

I prefer the evidence of my own eyes.

Aside from claiming three floaty corners I don't know what Pope did that was so great. He had a couple of awful kicks under no pressure too. Pickford has his faults but he's way better than Pope.

Keith I'm not often enough of a poster to see all of the critics of Pickford, or Davies, or DCL to have aimed an article at particular people instead it was general feeling amongst the ToffeeWeb population that the general attitude was turning against Pickford, who I rate at top six quality, alongside probably 2/3 other keepers who wouldn't necessarily improve us.

(For the record I rate Ederson, Allison, Leno and Schmeichel as the best four and stats back this)

I feel having spent plenty of time looking at very recently that stats are not an accurate reflection of Jordan's ability due to the poor performance of our defence in general.

Indeed looking at so many goals conceded the running themes were as following Keane's lack of mobility has been exploited many, many times. Digne has been beaten a noticeable amount times in one-on-ones. Our midfield has failed to track runners an alarming amount of times.

All of the Above have contributed to a significant proportion of our goals conceded. These things are all problems that can be managed or mitigated with a single signing and better tactics (the signing being a pacy centre-back with good reading of the game to replace Keane).

This is not to pass on the buck of bad player to Keane or whoever, rather the suitability of the player to the system. Pickford for me is suitable to our system and our forwards. Can he reliably launch the early ball for a counter attack to DCL, to knock down to our other forwards. Yes is my analysis. Is he a good enough keeper for a top six club, will he save the club points with his keeping? Yes he does make enough saves to justify his place. Is he going to win us a league probably not.

To my knowledge he has never been dropped even when his performances merited it particularly following his antics at todays venue last year.
The focus on Pickford is no different than the focus on every other player in the squad whose performances have been torn apart on TW hence he cannot be exempt.
Coleman, Kenny, Keane, Holgate, Mina, Digne, Sneids, Davies, Siggy, Delph, Walcott, DCL, Tosun, Iwobi, Richarlison. Don't think I have left anyone out who hasnt been vilified by TW commenters so Pickford should not get a free pass.

Peter #3, care to reassess after today's performance?

Sam #14, if Pope is "far and away a better keeper than Pickford", why are his statistics virtually identical? Why did he spend so many years in the lower leagues? Why haven't bigger clubs been in for him at age 27? And why does he sit on the bench for England -- every game but one -- while Pickford plays?

Sorry, but I don't think Southgate, the Prem and the world of football at large are universally overlooking Pope's brilliance.

Meanwhile, Joao Virginia has had his loan to Reading cut short.

Long may it continue but I need to see performances like today week in week out for me to reassess my judgment of him.

We've way more to worry about in the squad than Jordan Pickford.

As Don (29) says, we've got way bigger issues to focus on than the keeper position.

I am not trying to find a replacement for Pickford. I just dont agree that he is as good as many people think'.

He is far from the complete article and I do think he is one of the problems in the side which Ancelotti needs to sort out.

Look at it this way, between Big Dunc and himself we Now have the makings of “one of the best CF in Europe”. Who would. Have thought that on TW a few weeks past.

I just wish he'd learn to catch balls rather than parry them. Is it the modern goalkeeping methods or are my memories of Gary Sprake and Peter Bonetti making wonderful aerial catches just early onset dementia?

Link

And for those saying they prefer Burnley's Pope to Jordan, check out the sobering data included near the end of this detailed report on how PL teams and players are performing against expectancy levels.

Pope is in the bottom 3 of all PL keepers for conceding more goals than he should from shots on target - 6.51. Only Chelsea's Kepa (8.42) and Southampton's Gunn (7.38) have conceded more.

Maybe not as good as some claim.

And parrying away an easily catchable shot? Again, lucky he got away with it.

When the opponents attack he is a good few yards off his line trying to narrow the angle, again this makes it easier for the attacker to curl it over his reach and into the top corner.

The above will have supporters baffled thinking hang on he stays on his line yet he is also off his line.

Well the difference is stay closer to your line to cut out shots outside the box curling over your head, but at the same time, when a ball is coming in from the sidelines, make it your ball.

The Watford game nearly led to a goal when it was his ball to come out and tidy up, instead he stayed on his line and allowed Watford possession with two Everton defenders telling him in no uncertain terms he should have been out to clear it.

These are the finer things Pickford needs to work on, but like others have said a top class goalkeeper who can get even better by ironing out the above little tweaks.

Be interesting to know how many goals conceded have come from it being out of reach due to Pickford being off his line at the wrong time.