Antoine Griezmann walks out of France press conference after firing subtle dig at Didier Deschamps

JORDAN PICKFORD has regularly been the hero when it comes to a penalty shootout for his country, writes Jon Boon.

The England and Everton goalkeeper, 30, saved Manuel Akanji’s effort for Switzerland to hand the Three Lions an advantage in their shootout win in their Euro 2024 quarter-final.

Now, with the help of Goalkeeper.com, we’ve uncovered Pickford’s penalty-saving technique.

USES HISTORIC TRENDS

Pickford is well prepared when it comes to facing the ball from 12-yards.

His water bottle trick has become infamous with the list of penalty takers and direction of shot taped on to it.

But you cannot always listen blindly to most probable placements, and a goalkeeper’s intuition should also play a role.

That human element remains important.

UTILISES A MIXED STRATEGY

Being a goalkeeper is often called the ‘loneliest job’ in the world.

And when it comes to penalties, your team-mates are solely reliant upon your strategy to save one.

Often, we’ve seen goalies who prefer to favour one side – and continuously dive one way.

However, Pickford adopts a mixed strategy.

Sometimes, he will dive to the power side – saving from Jorginho in the Euro 2020 final.

His save from Akanji in the Swiss shootout was made on the placement side.

TECHNICAL EXECUTION OF DIVE

Goalkeepers are hindered during penalty shootouts – with the Fifa rulebook meaning they have to stay on the line until the shot is taken.

That means the lift off of your dive has to be executed a certain way.

Pickford launches himself from his back foot behind the line, pushes his body weight forwards, makes no large negative step and keeps both hands active to make the save.

This was put into effect when he made saves from Italy’s Andrea Belotti in 2020 and Colombia’s Carlos Bacca at the 2018 World Cup.

France’s Mike Maignan, by comparison, takes a large negative step, and struggles to reach his posts.

CLUB VS COUNTRY METRICS

Interestingly, Pickford is better at saving penalties in shootouts for England than in his overall career average, and better at saving in shootouts vs in game.

Clearly, Pickford performs better in an England shirt and when there is bigger pressure.

Read our full analysis of Jordan Pickford’s penalty-saving techniques…