Jordan Pickford was on the receiving end of high praise from Everton manager Frank Lampard after seeing his side play out a goalless draw with Liverpool. The Everton goalkeeper pulled off a string of saves to keep the visitors at bay and was rightly awarded man of the match.
Despite the lack of goals, chances fell for both teams with the woodwork being hit on four occasions. Alisson was in excellent form and made key saves to deny debutant Neal Maupay and Dwight McNeil, but it was Pickford’s collection of saves that stood out.
In second-half stoppage-time, Pickford tipped Mo Salah’s shot on to the goalpost having earlier pushed a Darwin Nunez effort on to the crossbar and denied Roberto Firmino three times. His performance frustrated a Liverpool side who have now dropped nine points from their opening six matches.
“Superb,” Lampard said of Pickford’s display. “The save from Nunez in the first half when I think we were comfortable as you can be against Liverpool – it’s just a moment of quality and he gets a fingertip to it.
“He gets scrutiny because he’s England’s number one, I understand that but when he delivers like he did today everyone understands why he’s England’s number one and why we appreciate him so much here.”
A 69th-minute goal from Conor Coady was ruled out by VAR for offside – a decision which sparked ugly scenes as a bottle was thrown towards Jurgen Klopp and a pitch invader confronted referee Anthony Taylor – but Liverpool were the ones pushing for a winner late on.
Lampard claimed that would have been different if Virgil Van Dijk had been sent off rather than receiving a caution when he caught Amadou Onana with his studs in the 76th minute.
“I’m surprised it hasn’t gone to VAR and they’ve not made what I think would be the correct decision,” Lampard said. “It doesn’t matter now but for me it was a red card that would, of course, have changed the face of the last 20 minutes…I think VAR got that one wrong.”
'We didn't use our chances'
Though the result keeps Everton winless after six games this season, it was another encouraging display from Lampard’s team, who have now drawn four successive league games. But for Liverpool, more dropped points checked the momentum gathered after two consecutive wins while a lengthy injury list persists.
“There are not a lot of derbies that will be in the book of games I will look back on in the future,” Klopp said. “Maybe one or two but all the others, no. It’s never really outstanding football. It’s a big fight. That’s what everyone expects from both teams.
“We fought, we didn’t play always extremely well but we created enough top chances. We didn’t use them. If we cannot win the derby, just don’t lose it. We could have won it today but we could have lost it in a few moments as well. If you count the numbers of chances I think we would have deserved a winner.”
Everton confirmed they had identified the individual who had thrown the bottle which narrowly missed Klopp, and that they – as well as the pitch invader – would face an indefinite ban from Goodison Park. Both incidents are also being looked at by the FA.
“I thought it was a glass bottle but it was not, I’ve seen it now,” Klopp said. “It looked like glass and that would have been really dangerous, but it was plastic.”