Garth Crooks has criticised the ‘schoolboy’ error that Jordan Pickford made for Everton on Saturday.
Carlo Ancelotti’s side moved top of the Premier League with a 4-2 win over Brighton & Hove Albion at Goodison Park.
But the second half looked like being a tighter affair than it really was when Neal Maupay equalised with four minutes left to go in the first half.
That equaliser came about due to another shocker by the Everton stopper, which has perplexed Crooks.
He said on BBC’s Final Score program [broadcast 03/10]: “If you’re a Premier League goalkeeper you need to do better than that. It’s almost schoolboy-like. The first ball he doesn’t catch, but then he tries to retrieve the ball. It’s all very odd.
“It all sucks the confidence out of the back four. When the back four starts to lose confidence in your goalkeeper, that’s serious. There’s a question mark about their goalkeeper now.”
At this stage, Pickford is the only player looking like a weakness for Everton.
The Toffees have picked up 12 points from a possible 12 so far and it’d be a massive shame if further goalkeeping errors held them back going forward.
The former Sunderland stopper is certainly competent enough to clean his act up and stomp out the gaffes, but until that happens, Crooks is right in saying the defence might lose confidence in the man behind them.
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