There is another Everton defence team that could do with the bellowing roar of Jordan Pickford ringing in their ears as the club moves from their draw at Fulham on to the big contest of the week.
A hearing is due to start today and last three days after Everton appealed against their 10‑point penalty for falling foul of the Premier League’s profitability and sustainability rules. A verdict is expected some time in the middle of February.
Certainly Everton’s lawyers will need to be on their toes, but that is the expectation of everybody at the club as far as Pickford is concerned.
Twenty-five shots rained in on his goal as Fulham almost edged an even and engaging contest. Some of his saves were acrobatic, others strong, the majority no more than you would expect from the England No 1, as his manager Sean Dyche pointed out level-headedly.
As teammates tried to congratulate Pickford after each stop, though, he brushed them aside so he could focus on bawling out whichever hapless soul had allowed the creation of the opportunity in the first place.
With Luton winning, Everton dropped into the bottom three with this draw and – despite the determined assertion of their fans – the table does not lie. Instead, Pickford declared, Everton need to look within themselves to find each of the points that is going to get the club safe.
“We’ve had to change a lot,” he said. “Everyone is ready to put on the shirt, put on the badge for the club and do our best, just give 100% and we will get points.
“I was in the game, my mentality was all right and I was on my A game tonight although I thought the game was a bit flat. Both teams had to create our own energy and tempo and we could’ve been on the front foot a bit more, but it’s a great point.”
Or is it? Dyche is refusing to deal with the mathematics until the matter is properly settled. “The complexity of it is that we are where we are,” the Everton manager said.
“In the bigger scheme of things, we’ve made strides as a team, but this is the current reality. I can’t keep harping on about the points. We’re not relying on anything. The fact is that we have to remember that and focus on the job in hand.”
Everton, who mustered 17 shots of their own, arguably came closest to winning it. James Tarkowski’s scuffed follow‑up to Jack Harrison’s first-half free‑kick had flicked off the head of Issa Diop and on to the bar, before bouncing off what appeared to be the arm of Antonee Robinson towards his own goal. Dyche could have no argument with the technology showing that Timothy Castagne’s goalline clearance had been in the nick of time.
The truth is with better finishing Fulham should have made it three wins out of three against Everton this season. Their cutting edge was not helped by a hamstring injury that forced Raúl Jiménez to limp off at half-time – an injury that will make no difference whatsoever, Marco Silva claims, to the club’s business in the final hours of the transfer window.
“To be honest with you, if you ask me if I am expecting very many things in the transfer window, I say no,” the Fulham manager said. “If it had been possible to do something it should have been at the start of the window when we had Carabao Cup semi-finals and the FA Cup to play for.
“Obviously, I am disappointed with the result. There were chances at both ends. It’s not a good thing that we are missing chances at the moment. We need to be more assertive and more calm at some moments, be more clinical.”
