World Cup 2018: 6 England Players Whose Stock Rose (And 3 Whose Dropped)

When Southgate announced his England squad for the World Cup, he selected three young goalkeepers, none of whom were guaranteed to start the first game against Tunisia. Jordan Pickford eventually got the nod over Jack Butland and Nick Pope, and has had one of the better tournaments out of any of the goalkeepers in Russia.

Though the Everton keeper had relatively little to do throughout the group stage, whenever he was called into action he dealt with the problem confidently and with relative ease. It was during the last 16 game against Colombia when the 24 year old started making a name for himself, from a quite incredible reflex save in the dying minutes of normal time, to the now famous penalty save that allowed Eric Dier to put the Three Lions through to the next round.

It is safe to say that for the majority of the goals England conceded in Russia, there was little Pickford could do, but if the former Sunderland man was not between the sticks, they could have conceded a whole lot more. Over the course of the tournament, the £30 million man has made big strides toward justifying being the third most expensive goalkeeper in history.