Jordan Pickford has insisted England are “chilled” despite their troubled start to Euro 2024 as he told the outside world not to panic about their faltering performances.
The goalkeeper insisted that England are united behind Gareth Southgate, who he claims will find the right gameplan after the manager took the blame for the poor display in the 1-1 draw with Denmark.
Pickford said England should savour the pressure of the tournament and noted that the Euro 2016 winners Portugal did not taste victory in the group stages as he argued a brilliant start is not essential.
“We are fine, we are chilled,” he said. “It is tournament football. You have to enjoy the moment while you are here. We have got four points and we are top of the group, we are chilled. We know we can do a lot better in the games, but we haven’t been beaten. We have the same points after two games as the last two tournaments and I would say we are calm. The outside noise is that we have to perform come Tuesday but there is no need to panic.
“Winning the first game in the group was important. Everyone wanted to beat Denmark, but no game is easy in major football and now we want to focus on Tuesday, win the group and look forward after that.
“Everyone is behind the manager. Everything we do in training and the meetings we have he delivers them brilliantly for us and gets us the right game plan. We weren’t perfect against Denmark, but that is a good feeling because we know we can improve. We know we have more to give in each game so to be on four points with a lot of improvement to come isn’t a bad feeling.
“It is not possible sometimes, but if you can’t win them don’t lose them. Portugal in 2016 drew every group game and then won the tournament. The manager always says that you are going to have a rollercoaster in tournament football, there will be high days and low days, but we got a point against Denmark, we are top of the group and there is no panic. We have to enjoy the pressure, enjoy the pressure of the games.”
