Jordan Pickford pulled off an extraordinary save against Liverpool in Saturday’s Merseyside derby.
The England favourite has been one of few shining lights for Everton over the last 18 months and has already delivered a strong contender for the save of the season this weekend.
That’s because Pickford prevented Darwin Nunez from channelling Fernando Torres’ legendary goal against Blackburn Rovers by showing remarkable acrobatics and reflexes.
Nunez channels Torres vs Blackburn
When the ball was looped over the Toffees back-line towards Nunez in the right-hand channel, fans might have wanted to look away as he lined up his second ambitious effort of the game.
However, while his earlier attempt at an acrobatic shot might have ended miserably, Nunez caught this particular strike perfectly with the subsequent rocket seemingly destined for the net.
But when the venomous effort proceeded to smack against the crossbar as opposed to rustling the net, everybody assumed that he had simply been extraordinarily unlucky.
Pickford’s incredible save
The plot thickened, though, because it turned out that Pickford got a crucial touch on the ball in what must go down as one of the finest the Premier League saves we’ve seen in the last few years.
While his crucial tip wasn’t immediately apparent in the original wide footage, replays showed just how vital his slightest of nicks was to ensuring that Nunez didn’t open the scoring.
So be sure to check out Pickford’s incredible heroics, as well as Everton’s goal continuing to live a charmed life just seconds afterwards, by watching the footage down below:
Mamma Mia.
Do not underestimate the sharpness required there for Pickford to leap into action and contort his body in the necessary way to reach the ball and get enough on the shot to elevate it onto the bar.
After all, a fingertip save supposedly ‘straight at the keeper’ can be just as hard as a fingertip save to either side if the strike is so high as to require that course of action.
Pickford: A top shot-stopper
Pickford might not be as well-rounded as the Alisson Beckers and Edersons of this world, but there are few out-and-out shot-stoppers that can compete with him when he’s at the top of his game.
You only have to look at his save of the season contender against Chelsea in 2021/22 to see that his superhuman ability to thwart almost certain goals can win so many points for Everton.
And with the Merseyside club continuing to limp and labour under Frank Lampard’s stewardship, they’ll need all the help they can get from Pickford’s moments of individual brilliance.
