Jordan Pickford is set to come under pressure for his England starting place — unless he calms down and cuts out the errors. Everton's ex-Sunderland keeper played the pantomime villain in Saturday's loss to his hometown club's arch-rivals Newcastle - fist-bumping and taunting the St James' Park crowd, pulling faces and sticking his tongue out. Even as he walked off at the end, World Cup hero Pickford was twitching his head at abusive Geordie fans around the tunnel, offering them outside. That ended with a good humoured wink and smile, and all involved laughed. The 25-year-old is a chirpy, irrepressible character, loving his job, and having a lark. But there are times when those endearing qualities have to switch to a steely concentration. Pickford took over the England job from Joe Hart, whose own pumped-up emotions before games magnified his mistakes. Everton's Mackem made a penalty save on Saturday as well as fantastic stops from Ayoze Perez and Paul Dummett. But he also fumbled a cross, rugby-tackled Rondon and should have been sent off in the spot-kick incident, and would expect to stop Newcastle’s first goal. Afterwards, manager Marco Silva refused to blame Pickford, who has made errors costing three goals this season, including high-profile blunders against Liverpool and Spurs. Burnley’s Tom Heaton is pushing for a start later this month in the opening Euro 2020 qualifiers against the Czech Republic and Montenegro after missing out on last summer's World Cup finals because of injury. Silva said: “Everything I have to say to my players, I will say to them in the dressing room. I have already said something to them. “We lost because of our own fault. “We have to look for ourselves, first of all, even if they score a goal in a clear offside position. We had the game in our hands.”
Jordan Pickford,Marco Silva,Euro 2020,Premier League,Everton FC,England football team,
Jordan Pickford is set to come under pressure for his England starting place — unless he calms down and cuts out the errors. Everton's ex-Sunderland keeper played the pantomime villain in Saturday's loss to his hometown club's arch-rivals Newcastle - fist-bumping and taunting the St James' Park crowd, pulling faces and sticking his tongue out. Even as he walked off at the end, World Cup hero Pickford was twitching his head at abusive Geordie fans around the tunnel, offering them outside. That ended with a good humoured wink and smile, and all involved laughed. The 25-year-old is a chirpy, irrepressible character, loving his job, and having a lark. But there are times when those endearing qualities have to switch to a steely concentration. Pickford took over the England job from Joe Hart, whose own pumped-up emotions before games magnified his mistakes. Everton's Mackem made a penalty save on Saturday as well as fantastic stops from Ayoze Perez and Paul Dummett. But he also fumbled a cross, rugby-tackled Rondon and should have been sent off in the spot-kick incident, and would expect to stop Newcastle’s first goal. Afterwards, manager Marco Silva refused to blame Pickford, who has made errors costing three goals this season, including high-profile blunders against Liverpool and Spurs. Burnley’s Tom Heaton is pushing for a start later this month in the opening Euro 2020 qualifiers against the Czech Republic and Montenegro after missing out on last summer's World Cup finals because of injury. Silva said: “Everything I have to say to my players, I will say to them in the dressing room. I have already said something to them. “We lost because of our own fault. “We have to look for ourselves, first of all, even if they score a goal in a clear offside position. We had the game in our hands.”
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