December 25, 2024

Jordan Pickford’s penalty cheat sheet emerges with records of Mohamed Salah, Darwin Nunez, Cody Gakpo and James Milner all featured

Pickford #Pickford

Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford didn’t need to save any penalties against Liverpool on Monday night.

But should he have faced one of the Reds players from the spot, he would’ve had all the information on their penalty history at his fingers tips – well, on his water bottle to be exact.

Pickford’s cheat sheet couldn’t help him on what was a frustrating evening for the Toffees goalkeeper

AFP

Pickford’s cheat sheet couldn’t help him on what was a frustrating evening for the Toffees goalkeeper

A photo posted on social media shows Pickford had done his homework on the two Liverpool forwards’ penalty history, as well as Darwin Nunez and James Milner.

Attached to his water bottle, which was nestled in his goal at Anfield, the England goalkeeper had instructions on how to face each player from the spot.

It broke down whether the player tends to go for the left, right, or down the middle, as well as a short instruction on how to approach the spot-kick.

For Mohamed Salah, Pickford’s water bottle tells him to ‘check [the] run up’ of the Egyptian to decide which way to dive to make a save, with a diagram showing he normally shoots to the goalkeeper’s left.

When it came to Nunez, the keeper was told to ‘wait right’, given there’s not a huge split between the Liverpool man picking between going left or right.

However again, the cheat sheet showed Nunez would prefer to go to Pickford’s left.

Milner had the same instruction as Salah, with his penalty kicks predominantly going to the goalkeeper’s left.

Meanwhile, for Cody Gakpo, the sheet tells Pickford to his left, with 75 per cent of the Dutchman’s penalties going in that direction.

In the end, though, it wasn’t needed as goals from Salah and Gakpo secured a 2-0 win over their fierce rivals, claiming all three points in a much needed win for the Reds.

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Pickford was caught out of position when he misread a pass from Nunez that found Salah to score

AFP

Pickford was caught out of position when he misread a pass from Nunez that found Salah to score

It was a frustrating evening for the Toffees goalkeeper, who was caught out of position for Salah’s goal, and then let another one in in the second half as Gakpo scored his first for the club.

“The game changed in 15/16 seconds,” Sean Dyche said about Salah’s goal that came moments after Everton hit the post. “We know Liverpool are good in transition, and we conceded a goal without really needing to.

“Jordan has a bit of a misread, and that’s the story of the first half – a goal out of nothing.”

The loss leaves Everton in the relegation zone, whilst Liverpool have leap-frogged Chelsea to go ninth in the table.

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