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I think Trafford is shite, makes a lot of mistakes whenever I've seen him play.

Was good to see Hart sticking up for Pickford a bit at halftime saying it wasn't really a mistake as such, but it'll never stop the noise surrounding Jordan, nor will anything he does at this tournament that saves England, or anything he's done previously.

AjaxAndy wrote: ↑Thu Jul 02, 2026 9:08 am I think Trafford is shite, makes a lot of mistakes whenever I've seen him play.

Was good to see Hart sticking up for Pickford a bit at halftime saying it wasn't really a mistake as such, but it'll never stop the noise surrounding Jordan, nor will anything he does at this tournament that saves England, or anything he's done previously.

He definitely was shite the season Burnley got promoted and lost his place if I recall correctly. Did much better when they were in the Championship but we’ve not really seen that much of him since. Don’t think he was that good in the games when he first went to City either

Kerryblueboy wrote: ↑Thu Jul 02, 2026 8:59 am Shearer had a right go at him the petty Newcastle Sunderland stuff should be kept away from international football

Nothing to do with that....

Pickford has been crap. Skittish, poor, disappointing.

AjaxAndy wrote: ↑Thu Jul 02, 2026 9:08 am I think Trafford is shite, makes a lot of mistakes whenever I've seen him play.

Was good to see Hart sticking up for Pickford a bit at halftime saying it wasn't really a mistake as such, but it'll never stop the noise surrounding Jordan, nor will anything he does at this tournament that saves England, or anything he's done previously.

Trafford is definitely not shite

It was exactly as Joe Hart said. It wasn’t a mistake but when you get beaten at your near post (albeit with a cracking strike) then you should be disappointed as a keeper.

He's not been great all tournament, which carried on his form from the end of last season tbh.

I don't know whether having no confidence in the four divs in front of you is playing a part, but his decision making has been poor, and normally those sorts of near post shots are his bread and butter.

Penalty saviour against Mexico coming up...

Audrey Horne wrote: ↑Thu Jul 02, 2026 9:29 am Trafford is definitely not shite

Kompany did him no favours when he was at Burnley, he wanted them to play like prime City, building it from the keeper at the back. He is unbelievably shit with the ball (or he was then as he's only played about 3 games since) he looked like the ball was in fact a bomb just about to explode

Been a huge player for us but crosses are his nemesis very weak in his six yard box has he peaked and now on the downslope

Form peaks and dips. Ridiculous to say he’s on the wane. Is he as good at the moment as he has been? No. Could he recover? Of course. Enough of this sensationalism.


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Kerryblueboy wrote: ↑Thu Jul 02, 2026 10:59 am now on the downslope

Absolute bollocks

cassius wrote: ↑Thu Jul 02, 2026 9:46 am He's not been great all tournament, which carried on his form from the end of last season tbh.

I don't know whether having no confidence in the four divs in front of you is playing a part, but his decision making has been poor, and normally those sorts of near post shots are his bread and butter.

I think it's the defence tbh, they're all over the shop.

Even the goal yesterday was a case of almost every player being out of position, Spence having to leave his man to contest with the striker and then the wide player having a relatively free shot. Even then it's a powerful low strike so not like Pickford's let it through his hands as some massive clanger. He almost saves it but the power and height are just too much for him to stop.

The one where he came out against Ghana and was lucky he pulled out at the last second and got a free kick instead of being sent off was again the defence being all over the place and him being forced to try and mop up the mess.

Not saying he's covered himself in glory in either of those instances, but also he's being left high and dry due to horrible organisation and easy gaps for teams to play through.

I don't know who's to blame here, the manager for the lack of defensive structure, Anderson for having no positional awareness, the CBs for a lack of communication, or the manager for terrible defensive setups... Or all of the above. People want to focus on Pickford though who is essentially the last one in the line of who is to blame.

Kerryblueboy wrote: ↑Thu Jul 02, 2026 10:59 am Been a huge player for us but crosses are his nemesis very weak in his six yard box has he peaked and now on the downslope

Way, way too early to suggest he’s on the way down…

cassius wrote: ↑Thu Jul 02, 2026 9:46 am He's not been great all tournament, which carried on his form from the end of last season tbh.

I don't know whether having no confidence in the four divs in front of you is playing a part, but his decision making has been poor, and normally those sorts of near post shots are his bread and butter.

We've been poor defensively as a team, I'd imagine that hasn't helped.

He seems like he's not on top form you'd have to say, which is not dissimilar to many England players right now I think it would be fair to say.

I mean look at all four wingers, non of them really having fantastic seasons (some you could even say had kinda poor seasons) and so maybe it's not surprising how they're doing this tournament. Pickford early to mid season was good for us but like a fair few others tailed off later in the season. Distribution has been kinda notably poorer too which hasn't helped also.

Should he have done better on the shot? Probably, but the guy basically was one on one with the goalkeeper at that point albeit from a wide position. Spence was stretching at the end but the shot was already past him. Pickford was probably assuming he'd go far post and the speed/accuracy of the shot caught him out. The fact that the attacker got to that position though was the bigger issue.

In a way it's a bit similar to the almost red card in the Ghana game, defence was hesitant/slow and Pickford was in turn hesitant and slow to make a decision. He was likely initially hoping the defenders were making up the ground, but they weren't really as they hadn't really been on their toes plus they're not really the fastest players too so it became a mess.

There is plenty blame to go around. Konsa feels like another commonality with these incidents. Also the RB issue which feels like above all else is a Tuchel derived problem. It actually feel broader than that though as there doesn't exactly seem much cohesion between Rice and Anderson and the defence too. Anderson in particular I would have expected to be there to cover gaps as in the DR Congo goal as you might see Gueye do for us, but he was miles away really. The whole defensive structure feels like it's missing cohesion.

It doesn't help Pickford that the opposition keepers of Croatia (hats off to him he was really good), Ghana and DR Congo (who actually I thought was kinda just ok and most shots just went straight at him but media take was different) were having good games.

I hope he can turn it around though, as he has been good for England and it would be a shame to not end on more of a positive note.