Jordan Pickford says he would back himself 100 percent to take a penalty for England in a shoot-out at the World Cup, even if it means the goalkeeper could be asked to carry the pressure as well as stop it. The Everton keeper said England’s main goal is to win the tournament, and that he is ready to step up if Thomas Tuchel decides the moment belongs to him.
The comments matter now because England are in Florida for the first stage of their World Cup build-up, with Tuchel using his first major tournament camp to set a clear target. Pickford said the squad had heard the manager challenge them to write a new chapter in English football history after they arrived at their training base, with the team spending ten days in Miami before two friendly warm-up games and then a trip to Kansas City for the tournament.
Pickford’s comfort from the spot is not theoretical. He scored in the Nations League shoot-out and said he would trust himself again without hesitation. But he also drew a line that complicates the idea of a goalkeeper doubling as a penalty taker: he wants to focus on saving as well as taking one. That makes the decision less about bravado than balance, especially with Tuchel having told the players they may need to win two shoot-outs if they are going all the way.
England have lived through this sort of pressure before, and Pickford is one of the few players in the squad with the scars and the mileage to talk about it plainly. He said this is his third World Cup and his fifth or sixth major tournament, which is part of why he spoke so confidently about the need to take each chapter and each hurdle as it comes. Tuchel, who was brought in to try to deliver England’s first World Cup since 1966 after the side went close under Gareth Southgate, has already told the group that the road to the final will not be straight.
Pickford also sounded encouraged by the way Tuchel is managing the camp, saying the coach has been brilliant for him especially. He described Tuchel as someone who can joke away from the pitch but turns strict in meetings, where the detail starts to matter. That blend of looseness and control may matter if England do end up in a shoot-out, where the margin between a memorable World Cup and another exit can come down to who is willing to take the fifth kick and who is willing to stop it.
England now have two friendly warm-up games against New Zealand and Costa before they face Croatia in Dallas on June 17. Whether Pickford is ever actually asked to take a penalty may turn on what Tuchel sees in those final days, and on whether England decide they want their goalkeeper thinking about both ends of the shoot-out at once.
