OPINION
Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford vowed not to play risky football when defending Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson Becker for his recent faux pas.
The Toffees shot-stopper, who earns £60,000-a-week (Source: Spotrac), suggested that sides like the Reds want their keepers to play that way and have to accept mistakes happen as it’s a risk for a shot-stopper to do tricks and have the ball at their feet.
Alisson attempted a Cruyff Turn during the Reds’ recent game with Leicester City but was left looking foolish as Foxes attacker Kalechi Iheanacho saw it coming and robbed him of the ball in order to score.
“I try not to do tricks because I don’t want to be caught with it. It’s a risk,” Pickford said, as quoted by the Telegraph.
“It’s a style of play and I think that’s the way Liverpool want to play as well. You’ve got to accept where mistakes will happen and it’s about not making the next one.
“It’s all about managing the game and not making it again in the same game I’d say. Look at Ederson at City, Guardiola puts a lot of faith in him doing it and mistakes happen all over the pitch – the goalkeeper mistake is always a crucial one or gets talked about a lot.
“For me, I’m going to try not to put myself in that position to make those mistakes.. You don’t want to get too comfortable if you’re winning and start trying to be a No 10 player.”
Yet despite clearly defending his fellow Premier League goalkeeper, the Toffees shot-stopper shared that he would never want to get that comfortable and start trying to be an outfield player as mistakes are likely to follow.
Given that the Reds could have ended up paying for Alisson mistakes by dropping points against the Foxes, as they only managed to narrowly win the game 2-1, Everton fans can rest assured that sleepless nights aren’t in their future as Pickford isn’t going to put his clean sheets in jeopardy.
The 24-year-old has been the Toffees’ first-choice goalkeeper since joining the club from Sunderland in July 2017 and has registered 12 clean sheets in 50 outings.
While this number doesn’t seem high, when you consider that he had a leaky defence in front of him for the majority of his appearances then it’s impressive that he managed any.
However one thing is for certain after Pickford’s vow, that if he concedes a goal than it won’t be due to doing risky moves and carelessly putting his side’s results in danger.