Jordan Pickford weighs in on Lee Carsley’s prospects in the England dug-out after shambolic showing against Greece – and bizarrely claims Three Lions ‘weren’t far off’ in historic defeat

Jordan Pickford gave a vague answer on whether England’s limp 2-1 defeat to Greece will play a role in Lee Carsley’s future as head coach, as the goalkeeper made a rare defense of his side’s performances on Thursday evening.

England’s No.1 conceded twice to goalscorer Vangelis Pavlidis on an historic night for the Greek visitors as they recorded their first-ever win against the Three Lions at Wembley.

Greece’s victory came with a layer of poignancy as they dedicated the victory to the late George Baldock, the former international and Sheffield United player who died on Wednesday after drowning in his swimming pool.

But there was also cause for celebration, amid sadness, with the visitors being worthy winners of a shabby England being outplayed.

Carsley – who has been interim head coach following the departure of Gareth Southgate after this summer’s European Championship – will be hoping to return and regain his grip on the role against Finland on Sunday.

But Pickford could not say whether he believed the loss had damaged his manager’s chances of taking on the role full-time.

“I’m not part of the hierarchy,” Pickford said in the aftermath of the match, before admitting: “It’s never nice for a player or staff to be beaten at Wembley.

‘We want to win every match we play when we put on this shirt, but we didn’t succeed. So we have to go ahead and dust ourselves off. What can we do better, what can we learn from and move forward and get the result on Sunday?

‘You always have to learn. You will never be perfect, even if you win games. You can learn a lot from this.

“It’s about recovering well and getting ready for Sunday.”

But for all Pickford’s talk of improving and moving on ahead of the second Nations League game of the international break, the Everton shot-stopper believes the result hampered England’s performance on the night.

“I think they caught us a little too much in transitions,” Pickford continued. “I think we were a little bit open.

“Sometimes in football it gets a bit strange because you get out with a few dirty passes and we get a counter quite quickly, and they’ve done that a few times. They played the long ball and probably won more second balls than us tonight and that was perhaps the difference tonight.

‘But the football we played was good and I know we always want to win, but we didn’t.

‘We have to dust ourselves off and look at what we can do much better and go on and win on Sunday.

‘We weren’t far away. It was only two or three transitions where we got caught. Apart from that, we kept it under control, but they overcame us and we are disappointed as a nation. It’s about how we prepare now for the next match.’

However, while Pickford may have thought it was a matter of narrow margins between England and their opponents, ITV pundit Roy Keane cast a harsher judgment on the side, singling out the goalkeeper as particularly critical.

The former Manchester United man pointed out what he saw as a lack of urgency in Pickford’s first-half performance and questioned whether his attitude had an impact on his teammates.

‘That sends a message throughout the team: the lack of concentration level, the lack of urgency.

‘What is he doing? Do it quickly – not a good message for Pickford to send,” he said, after Pickford lost possession well out of bounds and needed Levi Colwill to save him.