Pickford’s feet gives new dimension to England
Good passing does not just have to be short. England impressed with some patient build-up in Seville on Monday night, keeping the ball between themselves, never rushing anything, but their first two goals came from laser-guided missiles from Jordan Pickford’s left boot.
Pickford is the England goalkeeper in part because of how good he is with his feet. This is often taken to mean his first touch, his passing with his defenders, building up from the back. But in the modern game it can be even more dangerous to have a keeper who can reliably find team-mates over long distances. When
you are being pressed hard, it can be the quickest way to turn defence into attack.
That is something that Ederson has showed at Manchester City, and this season he has already got an assist for Sergio Aguero. Pickford does not have one of those yet, but he produced the pre-assist for Marcus Rashford’s goal as well as the pass before the pre-assist for Raheem Sterling’s opener. It was yet another little detail from the game that proved Southgate right, on a night when it felt as if two years of management climaxed in this performance and win.
Southgate spoke afterwards about how England knew that they needed to get the ball to their dangerous front three, and how that meant “getting the first couple of passes out of their press spot on”. That was exactly what they did, Pickford working well with Harry Maguire and Joe Gomez at centre-back. But it was Pickford over long distances that helped England go 2-0 up.
The first goal came from a brilliant Pickford pass under pressure. England were keeping the ball in their own half while Spain were trying to press them. Pickford got the ball from Harry Maguire, gave it to Eric Dier then took it back, with Rodrigo putting the pressure on. Unruffled, Pickford drove a hard pass over the heads of the Spain midfield to Harry Kane, just inside the centre circle. Like that, England had beaten the Spanish press and suddenly it was Kane, Marcus Rashford and Raheem Sterling up against three Spain defenders, turning and running back towards goal. Rashford passed, Sterling finished.
The second was even simpler. Again, England had been defending but Pickford comfortably caught the ball. He bounced it once then kicked it 80 yards up the pitch, over the heads of the eight Spain players in England’s third, finding the only white shirt in the Spanish half, Kane. He managed to hold off both Nacho and Sergio Ramos, win the ball, turn and find Rashford for the second goal.
This is why Pickford is England’s goalkeeper and he was delighted to have contributed in this way. “They weren’t direct assists, they were the start of the moves,” Pickford said afterwards. “I really enjoy that part of the game and that’s the style the manager likes to play but we can also go long with the pace we have up there.”
But the game nearly turned in the second half when Pickford tried a Cruyff-turn in his own box, lost the ball to Paco Alcacer and had to recover with a tackle. He would have been criticised had Spain scored but ultimately Southgate was not too critical. He knows that playing out involves taking risks and ultimately Pickford’s confidence with the ball at his feet, his willingness to take an extra touch, and try difficult things, does England far more good than harm.
“We have tried to talk to him about having an extra touch,” Southgate said. “At times, the game opens up to you as a goalkeeper and those options become more apparent. He has shown real composure to do that,
finding midfielders. He has the technical ability to do that. He maybe doesn’t have the technical ability to do a Cruyff turn in his own box, but that’s something he maybe has to work on at Everton. Not us.”
The next team who plays England and tries to press them, thinking that they are not good enough with the ball at the back that they will cough it up and make mistakes, cannot say that they were not warned. Pickford’s kicking combined with England’s pace on the break means that they will always have the chance to break through the press. This tactic, like this result, was long in the planning.