Jordan Pickford: Unnerving at times, but still unbeatable at Euro 2020

FIRST PICK: While he splits opinion among many, England goalkeeper Jordan Pickford has a consistent supporter in manager Gareth Southgate. Picture: Patrick Elmont /Getty Images

A campaign that began with Jordan Pickford conceding two poor goals at Fleetwood Town, ending Virgil van Dijk’s season, and losing his Everton place could end on Sunday with the England keeper re-writing international football record books.

No team, apart from Italy in the 1990 World Cup finals, has ever opened a major tournament by keeping clean sheets in their opening five games, an achievement England matched after Saturday’s 4-0 quarter-final win over Ukraine.

If Pickford and his in-form defence hold firm against Denmark in this evening’s Euros semi-final meeting at Wembley for more than 67 minutes, then they will have set a new record for defensive supremacy at the highest level of the game.

More importantly, Pickford could yet follow a national treasure, the late, great 1966 World Cup winner Gordon Banks, in becoming just the second English goalkeeper to land a major title with the national team.

“There’d be nothing better for me than to win a medal with England — nothing,” said Pickford last week.

“All that personal stuff, it takes care of itself. To win a medal with England would be the pinnacle. It’s really good and it’s really nice to keep clean sheets but it’s not just me.

“It’s the full 11 and everyone is working hard to keep those clean sheets because they are key in tournament football. They give us the basis and keep us progressing and give the lads up front the opportunities to score goals.

“It was a massive win and a massive moment for me in my career to be beating Germany at home. It was a great day and great experience but we have the staff in the country, the best sports scientists and psychologists. So we have all that in place to give us the best chance.”

Banks’ are certainly auspicious gloves to fill but, for a man who may well currently lay claim to being the most in-form goalkeeper in the world, this season has offered a curious and troublesome journey for Pickford to ascend to this point.

Pickford had actually started the season with clean sheets for Gareth Southgate’s team in Nations League wins over Iceland and Denmark but it did not take long for the 27-year-old to start showing worrying signs in the Everton goal.

There was a shaky night, in a 5-2 win for Carlo Ancelotti’s side at Fleetwood in the Carabao Cup, a performance which had his former goalkeeper coach from Sunderland, Mark Prudhoe, calling him with some home truths and reminders of fundamentals.

Worse yet, in the Merseyside derby a month later, Pickford was involved in a rash challenge on Van Dijk that ended the majestic Liverpool defender’s season by injuring his knee ligaments.

As Everton’s season imploded in the new year, the fact was not lost on his club’s supporters that Pickford’s main impact on the Premier League season was, arguably, in ending Liverpool’s title defence by robbing them of Van Dijk’s services.

This, Pickford’s critics pointed out, was the characteristic that would always undermine and limit him at the top level of international football.

Few would ever describe Pickford’s on-field demeanour as ‘composed’, his obvious nervous energy leaving him a player who all too often looked to be playing on the brink — hardly a prerequisite you are looking for in your goalkeeper.

Within weeks of the Van Dijk incident, Ancelotti had seen enough, dropping Pickford for Sweden international goalkeeper Robin Olsen, an ignominy the England keeper would suffer again in the new year.

Yet, crucially, despite the fact that Manchester United’s Dean Henderson and Nick Pope of Burnley were staking their own claims for the national team position, Southgate’s faith in Pickford never wavered.

The Yorkshire-based England manager was a regular visit to Goodison Park during lockdown, frequently talking to Everton’s sporting director Marcel Brands about the goalkeeper and, more importantly, had worked with Pickford before with England’s U21s, handing him his debut for the team in September 2015.

Six years on and Southgate, whose man-management has been beyond reproach during England’s tournament to date, did not sound in any doubt about the identity of his number one, speaking days after Pickford and Everton had ended what had to be considered a miserable domestic season with a 5-0 defeat at Manchester City.

“I’m not concerned with Pickford,” said Southgate. “He has finished the season really well. I know the team had a difficult day but he has shown a real calmness which I’ve liked. His performances have been very focused; his goalkeeping has been good.”

Not for the first, or one suspects last, time in this tournament, Southgate’s intuition has been fully vindicated in the Euros to date even if Pickford has had moments when he has appeared “on the edge,” his body language and flailing arms hinting that an error may not be too far in his future.

Thus far, however, a combination of regular sessions with a personal sports psychologist, and the faith shown in him by Southgate, have proved — literally — an unbeatable formula.

In the 1990 World Cup, Walter Zenga — having kept his fifth and final clean sheet in the quarter-final victory over Ireland — was finally beaten by Claudio Cannigia 67 minutes into a semi-final which Italy eventually lost to Argentina on penalties.

Southgate, Pickford, and England supporters can only hope that is not an omen as they seek to reach their first final in 55 years tonight.