There’s only one myth bigger in football than the one about Jordan Pickford not performing for England.
And it’s the sheer ignorance of any outside observer who has the naivety to claim that he saves his best displays for the national team and is rubbish for Everton.
While we can only surmise that the former suggestion, as this correspondent has pointed out on many occasions, is nothing short of a petty and personal vendetta against Pickford.
Especially given that he’s been near faultless for the Three Lions across three major tournaments in a row while understudies Aaron Ramsdale and Nick Pope have both fluffed their lines when given opportunities to deputise for him.
VOTE: Have your say on who is Everton's player of the year
The latter assertion about his form at the Blues must be manufactured to suit a particular narrative to be peddled or merely have its roots from pure ignorance.
Let’s have it right here, Pickford unfortunately went into the World Cup on the back of dropping a clanger in Everton’s 3-0 defeat at Bournemouth, a match in which – as Conor Coady admitted – very few Blues players covered themselves in glory but as much as that was a genuine unforced error, that should not blot his copybook for the year as a whole.
Show me a goalkeeper – even Everton legend Neville Southall who was the best in the world – who has not made a mistake. The truth is that Pickford has been consistently outstanding for the Blues throughout 2022 and for considerably longer before that too.
In what still proved to be the joint lowest equivalent points total in Everton’s history, Pickford’s heroics made a decisive contribution to ensuring that the club avoided what would have been their first relegation in 71 years.
Pickford dashed from one side of his goal to the other after the ball rebounded off the post against Chelsea to spectacularly deny visiting captain Cesar Azpilicueta from the rebound in the crucial backs to the wall 1-0 victory on May 1, a stop that was named the Premier League’s Save of the Season.
Speaking on the club’s summer tour to the USA, manager Frank Lampard declared: “To be fair, this save is a different level, this save is not save of the season, for me that’s save of the Premier League era, personally I really believe that.”
Add to that some of the outstanding saves that England’s number one has produced for Everton this term – particularly his displays against Liverpool and Southampton – and you have a worthy recipient of the Blues’ player of the calendar year.
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