PICK & Keeper Jordan: I’m not only good at saving penalties.. I’d back myself to score in a shootout too

JORDAN PICKFORD reckons he might have the answer to England’s penalty shootout woes. Let him TAKE one. Pickford’s talent with his feet might just give him the edge over Jack Butland in the battle to be Gareth Southgate’s No.1 in Russia.

The Everton keeper, 24, has so much confidence in his striking, he would not hesitate if called upon from 12 yards.

“If I need to step up, I’ll take one,” Pickford said. “I’ve got no issue with that… I’m always practising in training.

“I remember the Under17s World Cup and I was down as third to take one.

“The manager John Peacock changed it, so I dropped to seventh, and the lad who took the third penalty smashed it over the bar.”

Pickford explains how he is left-footed, “but is not afraid to use his right”, and reckons he would be tidy in a holding midfield position – “a nice little quarterback role”.

He is not alone among the goalkeeping fraternity in having plenty of confidence, but his level of self-assuredness is impressive.

Pickford (below left, with Nick Pope (centre) and Butland at St George’s Park) will not, though, just be relying on confidence and fortune if England’s fate yet again goes to penalties.

Pickford, alongside the Burnley and Stoke keepers, has already started preparations in earnest.

He said: “We’re doing a lot of preparation for how we would want to go about it. It’s pot-luck sometimes, but it can also be about how the taker’s looking at it, his body language, where his shoulders or arms are.

“I’ve saved a few penalties this season, so I am good at them.”

Pickford and Butland are in a straight race for England’s opener against Tunisia on June 18. The Everton man was impressive when he kept a clean sheet in Holland on his last start, while Butland began the last match against Italy.

The only certainty is that, whoever Southgate selects, will be a relative rookie, as England’s three keepers have only nine caps between them.

“That’s not a concern,” said Pickford. “I have played 38 games in the Premier League this season and numerous in cups and the Europa League. That is where you get your experience from and I can’t wait to get out there.

“The gaffer is very good. He knows how I work and what I am capable of doing. Hopefully, he has got trust in me.”

He felt sorry for Liverpool’s Loris Karius in the Champions League final, but added: “I am able to mentally block out mistakes. I never really doubt myself or think, if I make a mistake, I am going to make another.

“Nothing really affects me. I just get on with it. That is the type of character I am.”