Jordan Pickford's teammate fires back at Liverpool legend after brutal criticism
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Asmir Begovic has defended ‘world-class’ Jordan Pickford after the England goalkeeper was labelled a ‘bomb scare’ by Graeme Souness.
The 30-year-old has been with Everton since he signed from Sunderland in 2017, making nearly 300 appearances for the club and racking up 71 caps for his country.
He came in for a fair amount of criticism earlier in his career but he has developed into a very reliable performer for club and country over the years, although clearly no goalkeeper is immune to errors.
However, Souness is not having Pickford at all, expecting something bad to happen on a regular basis with him and saying his lack of calm is completely unhelpful for the rest of his team.
‘I think he’s a bomb scare. I think he's an accident waiting to happen,’ the former Liverpool captain and manager told talkSPORT.
‘I look at him and [I don’t know] why he gets annoyed and rushes off his line after making a save, and waving his finger and pointing a finger at his teammates. That’s what goalkeepers are paid for son.
‘A goalkeeper should be like a referee – making the job look simple. And that is the sign of our top goalkeeper, when he goes more or less through a game unnoticed.
‘I like a goalkeeper to be calm and go through the whole process of, “have a great game, but don’t make it all about you”. And I just feel with Pickford it doesn't look like that.’
Begovic, who has played for the likes of Chelsea, AC Milan, Portsmouth and Stoke arrived for his second spell at Everton in August after being at Goodison Park from 2021-23.
He has spent plenty of time working with Pickford and could hardly disagree with Souness more.
Asked if the Scot had a point, Begovic said: ‘Oh no.
‘God bless Graeme. I think what he says there is quite difficult to take in really.’
On his Toffees teammate, the Bosnia-Herzegovina international said: ‘I’ve seen him now for three years and work with him on a daily basis and seen his quality, and I can genuinely say he’s world-class.
‘I’ve seen it with my own two eyes and work with him and we’ve pushed each other, gained respect and of course, we’re friends now.
‘So I think he’s developed over the years. He’s getting to an age now where he’s coming into really his best stage of his career having done what he’s done.’
Pickford did miss England’s win over Finland after playing in the defeat to Greece over the international break, but interim Three Lions boss Lee Carsley insisted it was simply rotation.
‘There was a case of getting a look at a few different players and we were always going to get a look at Dean in one of the games,’ he said.
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