Hard to see any part of the discussion as a wanting to fail or crying for cryings sake. We have seen two not really outstanding performances from Pickford this season. And he's been a subject for debate in both games now,for good reason.If he continues the rate of mistakes he's at now it will cost us lots of points against far better opposition. And what's with his distribution lately. It was spot on a few months ago wasn't it?
His distribution has been poor in these 2 games, but have you noticed all the bad clearances are off his right foot. He's left footed FFS. why do our defenders keep on playing it to his wrong foot?. We did it a lot last year too.
His short passing game has been fine. He hasn't played anybody in to trouble or anything or made any misplaced passes that have put the team in trouble.
As regards his mistakes. How many has he made really. The step he took to steady himself on the Neves free kick last week put him at a disadvantage. If you are being ultra critical you would say he was at fault, and interestingly did you notice that the goal keeping coach appeared to be working in that in the training video released during the week. The other obvious fault was the poor handling of the long range shot that resulted in the Ings chance yesterday. But he also made an absolutely world class save on the follow up, so you have to balance one with the other in my view.
I wouldn't put him at any fault whatsoever over the Ings challenge yesterday. In fact I thought he dealt with it fantastically. He was in exactly the right place to deal with the clearance and then it took an awful bounce. Could have happened to any player, anywhere in the pitch and nothing he could do about it. he then showed great reactions and athleticism to clear it. I thought it was great keeping.
In the ideal world our keeper will go through games without making any mistakes and, in fairness, for a young keeper he doesn't make that many. He's just come back off an almost perfect world cup campaign, so I suppose the law of averages said he was due an average game or two. he has had a very disrupted summer too so maybe his concentration levels aren't where they should be.
Yes, his first 2 games have been below the level we've come to expect from him after last season, but they are hardly mistake riddled as some in here are suggesting. He needs to get his distance distribution sorted though, I agree on that.