Blues Are In Safe Hands

Rachel Brown-Finnis spent 11 years as the Everton Ladies number one, helping the Blue Girls to the 2010 FA Women’s Cup. Now a BT Sport pundit, she popped into USM Finch Farm recently to catch up with her former manager Andy Spence, and we took the chance to quiz her on what she has made of Sam Allardyce’s impact, Jordan Pickford’s electric start to his Toffees career, and why she knows Michael Keane will be a success at Goodison Park.

- Hamish Dufton

“I look at Jordan Pickford as one of the trailblazers in that new style of goalkeeper, one who is almost as good as an outfielder with the ball at his feet and picking passes.”

Rachel Brown-Finnis has certainly liked what she has seen from the 23-yearold Everton glovesman. Having kept goal herself for Everton Ladies between 2003 and 2014, and accrued 82 caps for England, the now 37-year-old knows a thing or two about playing between the sticks. And in Pickford, the Blues have potentially got their number one for the “next 10-15 years or more,” said the BT Sport pundit.

“What I like about him is he is very, very agile and powerful,” she adds. “He is 6ft 1in so he isn’t the biggest goalkeeper around – I can respect that being 5ft 7in! – which means he will work on different things to say a David de Gea or a Thibaut Courtois. For instance, Pickford’s feet are super quick. His movement across the six-yard box and the area is excellent. Because he isn’t the tallest, he needs to be very quick to be able to get to those efforts heading towards the corners. You look at how quickly he gets down to low hard shots as well – a lot of people won’t notice it but being a former goalkeeper, I’ve seen how impressive it is. To get down that quick is a brilliant attribute because those type of shots are some of the hardest ones to save. That’s because, when you are stood in your position, the diving distance is the furthest to make.

“But Pickford has been brilliant and even when things have been tough, he has never gone quiet. He is always vocal across his backline. I think we will see him flourish at Everton.”