Everton’s Pickford Uses Water Bottle for Penalty Tips

Feb 16, 2023

by Dewa

Everton Goalkeeper, Jordan Pickford attracted media attention in his team’s 2-0 defeat against Liverpool on Monday. The England international caught people’s eye not because of his failure to keep a clean sheet but because of his unique water bottle.

Pickford Use Water Bottle for Penalty Stopping Tips Against Liverpool

Aside from quenching Pickford’s thirst, the keeper’s bottle apparently has another function, which is giving him important information about Liverpool players’ penalty stats and habits.

The data and stats were shown for four potential penalty takers, Mohamed Salah, Darwin Nunez, James Milner, and Cody Gakpo. The information data basically gives tips on which direction should Pickford goes to save any spot kicks from them.

Interestingly, four of those players apparently more than often like to place their spot kicks on the left side of the goal. There are also additional tips such as check run up for Salah and Milner, wait right for Nunez, and also gk left for Gakpo.

Unfortunately, those stats were useless in that game as The Reds grabbed all three points without scoring any goals from the spot kick with Salah and Gakpo getting on the scoresheet.

Pickford Also Uses Bottle for Penalty Tips With England National Team

However, it’s not a unique habit from Pickford as he has done it several times before either with Everton or England national team. For the Toffees, in 2021, the keeper also had a similar set of notes for some of West Ham players.

Meanwhile, for the Three Lions, Pickford was also seen using that penalty tips in the 2018 World during England’s clash against Colombia and also in their UEFA Nations League game versus Croatia.

Another goalkeeper who has used a similar tactic that the Everton keeper did was Norwich and Dutch, Goalie, Tim Krul. He was spotted using a water bottle during his team’s FA Cup tie against Tottenham Hotspur which ended in The Canaries' victory via penalty shootout.