Ancelotti retains faith in Pickford but demands improvement

I get tired of hearing the cries “who you gonna replace him with”.

The simple fact is, the guy is mentally not on the job and he hasn’t been on the job ever since the World Cup in 2018.

His ego has inflated far too much and being England number one is all he is arsed about and if he lost that position you get the feeling his career would be going nowhere.

It’s not even the amount of pathetic mistakes he makes which frankly are almost on a game by game basis now, it’s the pathetic playing up to the camera and the gurning and laughing.

For me he’s not going to change, it’s who he is and he’s become a really big liability in that goal.

Neville Southall, David Seaman, Nigel Martyn, Peter Schmeichel, David de Gea, at Pickfords age these were all top class goalkeepers with their mind on the job.

People say goalkeepers don’t mature until 30...I think that’s less the case these days, it’s much sooner now and besides we haven’t got time to be waiting for Pickford to sort his head out.

Any kind of big offer and we should look to cash in before we end up with more of the same next season.

He also has lots of very unusual reactions to things that happen in a game. In early childhood development they call it ‘inappropriate emotional response’. I really think there is more to it than him just being a bit of a card.

I bet our back four would love to be in front of a keeper with presence, calmness and authority. I know I'd prefer one. This summer.

I think Pickford does need to improve, clearly, but that he also is not the priority at the moment.

Signing a quality improvement on him won't be easy, there simply aren't enough top level keepers out there, and our focus at the moment is in other areas of the pitch.

Also, we should only ever sell him should we have his replacement already lined up. Otherwise we'll be screwed and end up with probably a worse keeper for the same cost.

I imagine Ancelotti is banking on being able to improve Pickford and removing (or at least reducing) his mistakes rather than wholesale change. That is more urgent in other areas of the team.

I never wanted us to sign him in the first place, he was shit for Sunderland.

Don't want to hear that he won our player of the season award for a couple of years. If a Goalie wins a clubs/fans player of the year, then it means there is something seriously wrong with the team. Same as de Gea winning it at Utd, it was a shit team.

This lad is the root of our problems (not all) and should be the highest on the list for replacement. Really disappointed with Carlo's comments.

Not a winner, doesn't have the concentration levels or maturity for it. Only player on our books that has experienced relegation.

He's a good keeper who needs to get back to basics and needs to concentrate for 90 minutes.

I personally think we have far bigger problems than in goal.

Does this apply to goalkeepers, as those listed above, ie Neville Southall, David Seaman, Nigel Martyn, Peter Schmeichel, David de Gea PLUS Gordon Banks and Pat Jennings? They go about their work without fuss or bother even through periods of poor form.

In the early seventies, I remember people raving about Andy Rankin making more brilliant saves than Gordon West. Perhaps, the reason was that GW's positional sense and reading of the game were in a different class!

Perhaps, Pickford should sit down and watch videos of these great goalkeepers and learn from them. I doubt it because he thinks he is Jack the Lad!

Pickford may be a bit erratic and have too many rushes of blood that I'd prefer, but he is not going to stop us getting into the top 6 next season. The total lack of a half decent midfield is far more likely to hurt us.

Pace, passion, nous, will to win and general all round ability are qualities sadly lacking from our current crop of midfielders.

Long term? We may have to look elsewhere for a more consistent keeper, but we should prioritise a mobile centre back to play alongside Holgate and the aforementioned midfield first.

Pickford is on easy street at the moment and it's doing him no good.

The lad has nothing going for him, height, reach and can't even compensate that for positioning, concentration or attitude.

We know it. Whereas the rest of the Prem don't, 100% yet. So get rid of him before his reputation ends up like the last England No 1.

He's 27 before the end of next season. 27 is only a young age for keepers because they don't suffer the wear and tear on the legs field players do. That's it. Beyond that, it's perfectly reasonable to expect them to have matured in the game as one does for a field player.

He was a Sunderland Youth player at 8. Unless someone can find information indicating otherwise, he's been a keeper then to now, 18 years. What exactly will our coaching staff teach him he doesn't already know?

If we begin to read of Everton interest in another keeper, we can figure that Jordan's days are numbered. Fine by me. He's simply not that good.

The thing is, he has cost us very little in terms of points. The opposition haven't punished him at Leicester or Wolves. It should be a lot worse.

Doesn’t seem to have the maturity or mentality to go with the undoubted natural ability.

Thing that really gets me about him, whenever he makes a bad error and is interviewed afterwards, he always says the same thing “I don’t let it affect us, that’s my mentality...” Which is great, to a point, provided you learn from it and don’t keep making the same type of mistakes...which he isn’t.

Our entire squad have been hiding for weeks

The message must be that no one is untouchable at EFC. Players should play on merit, and not reputations, but Jordan is creating his own unique profile, can he change, his ways, I don’t know.

Bad descision making and erratic goal kick and free kicking but combined with a non existent midfield and over stretched defence pulled out of shape when often filling in for midfield.

The team is under the cosh but his repeat error rate is increasing each season.

For the next few days, let’s get x2 wins and rebuild ASAP, if. the money and transfer window can enable EFC to do so.

Good teams are built from the back and that starts with a safe unspectacular keeper who defenders know that within the 6-yard area a keeper will claim most crosses.

I see comments that blame the defence in front of him for being so jittery, I would say that they are jittery because of what's behind them. I said during the Burnley game that Pope is much more assured and a good look at the table shows that we are well and truly part of the bottom half. Serious surgery required, starting with keeper and then buy players who:

1. Do the simple things well, like pass a ball;

2. Have the engine to drive the team;

3. Hate losing.

We keep looking to buy big-name players when there are loads who meet the above criteria.

How shit are we all over the pitch? Do we have one good wide player? One good midfielder? I'm going back to bed,

Big risk, little reward. It doesn't get us up the pitch or attacking any quicker. We still struggle to find space and it often still ends up with a defender or keeper booting it clear.

If Carlo insists on this then he needs to to play more midfielders to help create spaces and passing options.

Unless injured, he will not dislodge De Gea in Man Utd's eyes, that's where I think we could actually take one of their decent players for a change, instead of a crock or has-been, baring Neville and Howard in recent years.

My first reaction would be to tell him to concentrate more on what he is doing before worrying on where he needs to distribute the ball, a common fault in keepers at all levels.

Link

Nigel Martyn – what a goalkeeper and leader on the pitch.