Why Pickford is now England's most important player?

Moving into England’s Thomas Tuchel era, who is the national team’s most important player?

For a long time, it has been Harry Kane but probably isn’t any longer. There are arguments to be made for Declan Rice, Jude Bellingham and Cole Palmer. But arguably it is actually Jordan Pickford.

Is it possible to win a World Cup without a first-rate goalkeeper? Perhaps the only team to do so in the last 30 years was Brazil in 2002.

So Tuchel – the new England manager – had better hope Pickford stays fit. Pickford has grown into that excellent international goalkeeper we talk about. His form for Everton this season has been wonderful. Every time I turn on the football highlights, there he is. Save after save after save. He is still only 30 and should have two major tournaments left in him.

Beyond that, there is a drop in quality to the back-ups and that is the point here. If not Pickford then who?

Nick Pope of Newcastle has distribution issues. Dean Henderson of Crystal Palace is a reliable Premier League goalkeeper who has nevertheless not trained on since being earmarked as Manchester United’s successor to David de Gea. Aaron Ramsdale was not considered best in class at Arsenal so why would he be so at England? Currently, he is at Southampton where he tends to finish most games looking like he needs a lie down.

If Pickford were not to be available for England, we would notice and we would worry and that’s unhealthy. It also begs the question as to why this is.

Standards of goalkeeping in the Premier League are exceptionally high but the majority of the best are foreign. So, by and large, are their understudies. There is simply no strength in depth in the one position at which English football was traditionally so well-stocked.

Some believe the academy system has played a part in this. Keepers are taught to be comfortable with the ball at their feet - coincidentally or otherwise Pope was never an academy player – but do not always get the grounding in some of the basics of what first-team football is actually about.

‘Nobody crosses the ball in academy games,’ one top scout of young talent tells me. ‘In the last 10 minutes in the Premier League, if a team needs a goal everything is swung into the penalty area.

‘Look at Arsenal whipping corners under the cross bar with bodies everywhere. That doesn’t happen in academy games. Never. The academies are producing goalkeepers who can play with their feet and who are great shot-stoppers.

‘But it’s not producing goalkeepers ready to play among men.’

Tuchel will hopefully be aware that there are a couple of goalkeepers who may yet prove useful, one at either end of the age scale.

Brighton have extremely high hopes for 20-year-old James Beadle who is on loan at Sheffield Wednesday in the Championship, and has played for England at every age group level from Under 15s upwards. Previous time has been spent on loan at Oxford and Crewe.

At the age of 29, meanwhile, is Christian Walton who is making a stake for a first-team place at Ipswich. Having spent most of this season on the bench, he played in his team’s 2-2 draw at Fulham last Sunday.

Ten years ago, Walton and Pickford were considered to be the best of their age range at academy level. Pickford at Sunderland and Walton at Brighton, having started at Charlton. Pickford developed quickly as we know and has been a first-team goalkeeper for as long as we can recall. He has now played at four major tournaments for England.

Walton’s progress has been slower – he played for six teams on loan before joining Ipswich – but that is often the way. The great Peter Schmeichel, it is worth remembering, did not join Manchester United until he was almost 28.

Goalkeepers can mature late and Tuchel must hope that is the case, simply because the others that we hoped would grow into genuine competitors for Pickford with England – men like Jack Butland of Rangers – have tended to show promise only to fade away.

Interestingly, Tuchel spent his time as manager of Chelsea a few years ago being told that Pickford wasn’t really good enough. The great Petr Cech – in goal when Chelsea first conquered England and then Europe – was the club’s technical director and wasn’t a huge fan.

But Pickford has continued to grow since then. So far at least, nobody else really has.

How Jack Grealish lost his joy at Man City

When Jack Grealish talked to Mail Sport towards the end of Manchester City’s Treble season, he revealed one of Pep Guardiola’s most recent in-game instructions.

‘Pep has kept me on trusting me,’ Grealish said.

‘He has been telling me: “Jack, get hold of the ball, keep it, win fouls”.’

And there – in a single candid sentence – is the core of Guardiola. Possession, structure, control and, yes, fouls. Because fouls mean more possession, more control, more structure. And on it goes.

But this is not Grealish. Not really. Guardiola managed to mould Grealish brilliantly from maverick to mainstay after City bought him from Aston Villa. He taught him things he didn’t know. He made him grow up, installed in him a discipline and made him a winner. Seven trophies at the last count.

But that was never Grealish. It was never his essence. And now that we watch a 29-year-old decline to the point where he doesn’t score goals, doesn’t make assists and doesn’t really play, we wonder whether this part of his career is now coming to a natural end.

Grealish – growing up and coming through – was always about joy. He was about instinct and expression and freedom and all the good stuff and the less good stuff that can come with that on a football field. And now it may just be time to go back to all that somewhere else.

All football careers go through phases. Grealish presented a new version of himself to the world as City conquered Europe. He fitted into the Guardiola’s structure. It worked for Guardiola and City and for a while it worked for him too.

But now that it no longer works – now that Grealish looks stifled and as bored as a bird in a cage – maybe it is the right moment for him to move on. Time to rediscover the joy. Because Jack without the joy isn’t really Jack.

Brighton's penalty 'conundrum' was no such thing

In the modern game, a player who takes some of the ball in a challenge but follows through to make dangerous contact with an opponent tends to be penalised. Normally that contact is boot to shin or boot to knee.

Last weekend as Arsenal’s William Saliba laid out Brighton’s Joao Pedro, the contact was head to head and as such many people seem to think different laws should apply. Why?

Stoke's sad financial reality is common

The football finance expert Kieran Maguire believes that Stoke City of the Championship have been losing £675,000 a week since relegation from the Premier League six and a half years ago.

Stoke – who owed much of their previous success in the top flight to the owners the Coates family – are not the worst-run club in the EFL. The truth is they are not atypical in an environment in which so much is spent on wages in a desperate attempt to reach the top flight.

And this is one reason many Premier League clubs give when asked they are uncertain about allowing some of their own revenue streams to flow further down into the pyramid.

If we give to them, what on earth are they going to do with it?