Seaman insists Pickford should be England’s first choice

Jordan Pickford

is without a doubt

’s first-choice goalkeeper, according to David Seaman, the former England star.

The Everton shot-stopper, Aaron Ramsdale, and Nick Pope are fighting for a place in Gareth Southgate’s team, with Pickford being the favorite.

Ex-Sunderland player Pickford was England’s first option when they went into the semi-finals of the World Cup in 2018 and when they were defeated at Euro 2020 on penalties against Italy.

Ramsdale has been struggling with

to get a top-four finish on the league table but they did not get the Champions League qualification by the end of the season, while Everton avoided relegation.

Pope is also fighting for the place in Southgate’s side. Seaman, however, is confident that Pickford should be the first choice.

"There's a lot of competition, there's no doubt for the number one spot. Jordan's the number one, there's no doubt about that because he keeps producing for England,"

Seaman said. 

"There's no way or no reason for him not to be England number one. He had a great end to the season with Everton producing massive saves under massive pressure.

"The relegation battle is far worse than going for titles trust me. I've had a relegation with Birmingham City, and it was horrible. And especially with a team like Everton who were in serious trouble, that's even more pressure.

"So Jordan's proved that he can handle that. He's played in the semi-final and final. He's got great experience. He's got great ability, and while he keeps doing it, he'll stay number one, but they're really close to it. The other two."

Last season, only five keepers pulled up more saves than Pickford (117) in the top flight. However, when it comes to the save percentage, he is 15th (66.7), Ramsdale is ninth (69.8), and Pope is fourth (71.7).

"It's good at the moment. The only thing that you look at now is that obviously Nick's gone down into the Championship,"

he added.

"That's not a real boldness, but for Aaron, he's established himself now as Arsenal's number one and he's done that really well this season. And it's his first season and he's dealt with it fantastically.

"So he will be pushing but the future does look good. We've got quite a few goalkeepers obviously in the Championship now with Nick and Sam Johnstone, then you've got [Dean] Henderson at Man United but he's not playing.

"In the three that we've got there at the moment, there's good quality."

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