Friday, June 16, 2017

Jordan Pickford - The Most Expensive British Goalkeeper!


Now as you can guess from the title of today’s post, I’m gonna be talking about Everton new boy, Jordan Pickford. The Toffee’s have just paid £25 million for his services (which could raise to £30 million) making him the most expensive British goalkeeper in football history. I imagine most fans would look at this as a dreadful signing but I beg to differ.

Admittedly £25 million is a lot of money when you think that Pickford is a 23 year old goalkeeper with only one year of Premier League football under his belt and that one year didn’t just end in relegation but ended in his side finishing dead last in the league...

...but if you look at the possibility of young Jordan having the longevity of someone like Gianluigi Buffon and playing well into his late thirties/early forties, then you have to say that £25 million for a number 1 that lasts 17 years is pretty good business. I mean, it’s better business than spending £17 million on a goalkeeper that barely lasted one season. *cough* Claudio Bravo *cough* he’s shit *cough*

Is £25 million a good deal for Jordan Pickford?

Let’s look at what Everton are getting for their big bucks. At only 23, Pickford is one of the best young goalkeepers in England. It’s shocking to think that he’s only one year older than me and has already played over 150 competitive games across the top five divisions of English football. Although all his experience might not have come from the top flight, that’s still a lot of games time for his age.
~ Side note: just to put that into perspective, at 23 Buffon has made 220 appearances for Parma and David James had only played 134 ~

One other check box that will be ticked from Everton’s point of view is that they haven’t had a consistent top drawer number one for a couple of years now. Yes Tim Howard is highly regarded by Premier League fans but he did struggle for the Goodison Park faithful for his last few seasons with the club. I’m gonna stick my neck out and say that Everton have had a goalkeeping problem since 2012…

Pickford made 4.7 saves per game last season. 2.4 saves per game inside the box,
2.1 outside of the box and 0.1 within the six yard box.

In my honest opinion I think their issue will be solved with this signing. Last season for Sunderland he made 29 league appearances for the club, making on average 4.7 saves per game! In total he made the second most saves in the league with 135, only beaten by fellow Englishman (and goalkeeper of the year in my book) Tom Heaton (141).

Pickford also made the second most punches in the league (22), made the fifth most catches (46) and conceded the fifth most goals of any keeper in the division (50). The only goalkeeper stats-wise who was as busy as him was probably Heurelho Gomes.

Gomes made 115 saves, 52 catches, 35 punches and conceded 64 goals.

Obviously not all those goals were his fault. If the opposition are getting over 5 shots on target against you per game then you’re obviously gonna concede goals (or at least that’s what I tell myself after my pub team gets beat 13-0). I’m positive that with a better defence in front of him, he’ll show vast signs of improvement. Despite conceding so many goals, he’s technically been one of the best keepers in the league...hear me out.

This season Pickford has made 135 saves and conceded 50 goals. That means in total he has had to deal with 185 shots in total. Conceding 50 out of 185 shots gives him a save success rate of 73%. Just to put this into perspective, league winning goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois had a save success rate of 71%, whilst the PFA goalkeeper of the year, David De Gea had a 72% save success rate. You can prove anything with statistics.

I love a good goalkeeper celebration. Look at how chuffed he is!

Even without these stats I’d say he’s still an impressive up and coming shot stopper and will only get better with Everton. It’s a great thing to see from an England perspective as Pickford is now like the sixth great goalkeeper our country currently has at its disposal. An England call up must be on the cards if he continues this season’s form with The Toffees.

Watch this space as I think he’ll go far for club and country, and I for one am very excited to see how he progresses. Best of luck Jordan Pickford!

~ Anyone who enjoyed this please follow me on Twitter @ThePenaltyKing1 or like me on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/ThePenaltyKing1 ~


Cheers for reading.

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