Roy Keane slammed Jordan Pickford for his lack of concentration at Wembley on Thursday as England slumped to a 2-1 defeat against Greece.
Deploying an extremely attacking lineup, England looked vulnerable on the break on several occasions and were eventually punished when Vangelis Pavlidis fired home in the second half.
Jude Bellingham thought he had grabbed a dramatic late equaliser to spare England’s blushes but Pavlidis’ injury-time winner condemned England to their first competitive defeat at Wembley in four years and their first-ever defeat against Greece.
It could have been much worse for Lee Carsley’s side on the night, with Greece spurning multiple chances and having two goals ruled out for offside.
Pickford, who gave the ball away cheaply in the build-up to one of Greece’s disallowed goals, committed another calamitous error in the first half when he dallied in possession outside his box.
The Evertonian was saved heroically by Levi Colwill’s retreating goalline clearance but Keane issued a scathing critique of the keeper when reviewing the error at half-time.
‘It sends a message about concentration levels, and that spreads throughout the team,’ he said on ITV. ‘Again there’s a lack of urgency from him.
‘What’s he doing?! Do it quickly. [It’s] brilliant defending, very unlucky by Greece but not a good message from Pickford to send.
‘That will always be there with Pickford. He’s not going to change now.’
Keane also tore into England’s defending for Greece’s opener which saw Pavlidis squirm through a flurry of white shirts before firing past Pickford.
‘This sums up the England performance. You’ve got bodies back but no one actually doing their job properly,’ the former Manchester United midfielder said.
‘They’re thinking, “Are you going to do it? Am I going to do it?” How can this happen? Five or six England players around him, brilliant from the striker, lovely finish, but my goodness someone’s got to put a tackle in.
‘If that happened in training you’d stop the session and say: “Are you taking this seriously?”
‘We talk about the words over the last few months, freedom and style and attacking play but you still have to do the basics. I go back to it in terms of defending properly, and urgency, England didn’t seem to have urgency.’
Speaking after the game, Pickford defended his side’s set-up but said the team must learn quickly from the errors as they look to keep their Nations League hopes alive.
‘I think everyone can see that we weren’t at our best level tonight. We’re disappointed with ourselves but setbacks happen in football,’ he told reporters.
‘We can learn from them but we’ve got a quick turnaround and we’ve got to get ready for Sunday against Finland and go and put a performance in.’
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