Writing for the Mail, Brian Viner marks what could be Jordan Pickford’s 60th England cap this week by saying that the Everton goalkeeper, “hasn’t been merely reliable for England, he has been consistently excellent, some might even say superb.
“Pickford should be lionised for the way he plays for the Three Lions. Any other country would cherish him.
“But here, he is routinely belittled by football writers and pundits who rarely find anything more positive to say about him than a grudging, ‘He’s never let England down’.
“Gary Neville, at least acknowledges he is worth his international place. But he damns with faint praise, suggesting the Everton man habitually ‘raises his game’ for England.
“This, too, is nonsense. Any Evertonian who watches Pickford most weeks knows that both last season and the one before he pretty much single-handedly steered the club clear of relegation.”