England told to make Jordan Pickford a penalty taker for Euro 2024

Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford should be a designated penalty taker for England reckons Stuart Pearce.

With Gareth Southgate’s side heading off to the European Championships in Germany later this month and playing their opening Group C fixture against Serbia on Father’s Day (June 16) in Gelsenkirchen before facing Denmark in Frankfurt on June 20 and Slovenia in Cologne on June 25, Pearce has demanded that the Blues shot-stopper get a chance to step up from 12 yards himself if the Three Lions have a penalty shoot-out in one of their potential knockout games.

The 62-year-old was a regular penalty-taker himself throughout his career, netting over 20 times from the spot but infamously had his effort saved by West Germany’s Bodo Ilgner in England’s shoot-out defeat in the 1990 World Cup semi-final and blasted another spot-kick over the bar in the last minute of his final game as a professional for Manchester City against Portsmouth in 2002 to deny him a century of goals in club football. However, the left-back, who was a dead ball expert also noted for his free-kicks did exorcise some of his Three Lions demons by netting in a shoot-out win over Spain at Wembley in the quarter-finals of Euro 96.

Pearce, who was speaking on behalf of BoyleSports, who offer the latest Euro 2024 betting, said: “I would have Jordan Pickford in my first five if the stats say so because he’s got that confidence.

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“When I had Joe Hart, he came out on top of the stats in practice. So he took our second penalty solely on the fact, it wasn't a gut reaction.

“You've got to look at the likes of Cole Palmer, who looks very composed from a penalty spot as well for his club, he might be one that if he's not in the starting line up, you look to bring off the bench to make sure your strongest takers are on the pitch.”

Pickford, who is Everton’s most-capped England player of all time with the club having played for his country 61 times to date since making his debut against Germany at Wembley on November 10, 2017, five months after his transfer from Sunderland, saved two penalties in a shoot-out to decide the final of the last Euros when he kept out efforts from Andrea Belotti and Jorginho but his side were still beaten 3-2 by Italy.

The Goodison Park fan favourite has taken a penalty for England in a shoot-out before when successfully converted in a 6-5 victory over Switzerland in the UEFA Nations League third-placed play-off in Guimaraes, Portugal, on June 9, 2019 although he revealed he was surprised to be asked to step up for the high-pressure fifth kick. Pickford said: “The gaffer [Gareth Southgate] in extra time went ‘number five’, and I went ‘oh wow.’

“I’m not a normal penalty taker but I just relaxed and trusted my ability.”

Southgate admitted he was pleased to see Pickford convert his penalty because he could have “got it in the neck” had his goalkeeper missed.

The England manager said: “With the players that were left on the pitch he was one of the leading penalty takers and he executed it as well as he could.

“We weren’t against Jordan taking a penalty at the World Cup last summer, it was probably just that a few others had shown a better level but he would be among our better penalty takers. You feel a bit more nervous putting a goalkeeper on a penalty but he was there on merit.”