What makes Pickford so good?
- Published
Jordan Pickford broke Gordon Banks' record last week with his eighth consecutive clean sheet for England - taking him past a year without conceding a goal for his country.
As Everton are expecting to announce a new long-term contract with Pickford when he returns from international duty, BBC Sport looks at the technical strengths and weaknesses behind his emotions - and how much they matter.
Former England goalkeeper Rob Green said: "When he is facing a shot, he drops his hands wide and low behind himself, and puts one hand up slightly before the other. There are oddities in his set position, in that he is slightly out of sync, but you can unpick his style all you like because what matters is that he makes the save."
With no obvious weakness when it comes to keeping the ball out of the net, Pickford's emotions has often been seen as his biggest issue- in his first few seasons at Everton it felt like we saw as many errors from him as there were eruptions.
That has changed - he has made much fewer mistakes leading to goals when playing for his club in recent seasons, and that increased focus has long been apparent for his country.
He has made only one error leading to a goal since his international debut in 2017 - a poor clearance against Belgium in March 2024.
"That stat really shows the level of consistency he has achieved for England, because in terms of international games played, that equates to one error over more than two Premier League seasons," Green added.
While his consistancy at preventing goals has improved, like every modern-day keeper, he is no longer only judged by how good he is with his hands.
"He has definitely improved his all-round play with his feet," Former England goalkeepers Paul Robinson explained. "Where Jordan has always been strong is with his long distribution and his ability to start a counter-attack - there are not many better than him at that in the Premier League.
"He can kick it accurately for absolutely miles in a similar way I used to do, and as a goalkeeper you enjoy that. The game has changed now, but he is still able to play out with shorter passes from the back too.
"You would do very well to find the perfect keeper anyhow but, when I analyse his overall game, I feel like Jordan understands his own qualities and he has grown and developed into the keeper we see now."