Jordan Pickford: England Ready to Go to War for Tuchel
Jordan Pickford says England are ready to “go to war” for Thomas Tuchel. It is not a throwaway line. Not from a goalkeeper who has lived every inch of this shirt for the best part of a decade.
Fresh from sealing top spot in Group L with a controlled 2-0 win over Panama in New Jersey, England step into the World Cup last 32 with something heavier than optimism: a conviction that this might finally be the campaign that ends a wait stretching all the way back to 1966.
Pickford has heard that talk before. He has been at the heart of it. Two European Championship finals under Sir Gareth Southgate, penalty shootouts, narrow misses, the familiar ache of “what if?”. Yet he insists this version of England feels different.
Tuchel’s edge
Asked by BBC Sport what has changed, the Everton No 1 went straight to the core of Tuchel’s influence.
“Belief, togetherness. I think we have had that previously, but I think the manager’s got that belief in us,” he said, lifting the lid on a camp that sounds anything but tentative.
The detail comes in how Tuchel delivers his message.
“The meetings the manager has with us, it is like you are ready to go to war. He puts that belief in you,” Pickford explained. Tactical briefings are not just diagrams and data; they are ignition points. “There is different meetings he has tactically, and it is like ‘yeah, it is go time’.”
That language matters. Players listen closely to who gets picked and how they are spoken to. On that, Pickford is clear: “We all want the same goal, we all want that end goal and this squad he has picked, we are all in good spirits and all in good moments in our career.”
This is a group stacked with players at their peak years, many hardened by previous near-misses. Tuchel has not tried to erase the scars. He has tried to weaponise them.
The goalkeeper who keeps growing
Behind the chest-thumping talk sits a quieter story: Pickford’s own evolution.
Long typecast as the adrenaline-fuelled keeper, he has spent years adding steel and stillness to that raw edge. Speaking to ITV Sport, he revealed he continues to work closely with a psychologist, not as a quick fix but as part of a deliberate, ongoing process.
“(It is) a lot of growth I am working on and being the best version of myself,” he said. “We have got targets, who I am working with, and it is about being the best version of me and where that can take me. We know the journey it can take me on, and believing in that, and being me.”
The words are measured, but the stakes are not. In tournament football, a goalkeeper’s season can swing on one save, one decision, one shootout. Pickford knows that better than most. His penalty record for England is already a defining part of his international legacy, and the deeper this World Cup runs, the more that expertise will hover over every tight knockout tie.
Eyes on DR Congo
Next comes DR Congo in the last 32, a side who slipped through as one of the best third-placed teams after beating Uzbekistan on Saturday. On paper, England are favourites. In reality, this is the World Cup’s jeopardy stage, where reputations mean less than nerve.
Pickford is not hiding from the possibility of extra-time or penalties. He just wants no part of them if he can help it.
“We want to win the game in 90 minutes, but we will ready as a team, as a group, as England to do what it takes to get the victory,” he told ITV.
That “whatever it takes” line is where his war analogy meets the cold logic of knockouts. If it stretches, they will stretch with it.
“If it goes to penalties, extra-time, we have got the ability, we have got the lads to come off the bench, our togetherness is a high level and that is what we are here to do.”
He is too experienced to dismiss the opposition. DR Congo arrive with momentum and the weight of a continent’s pride behind them.
“We are here to do the job. We know Congo is a tough nation, we know how many teams in Africa have qualified for the next round of games,” Pickford said. “They are a proud nation, and we have got to be ready for what they bring – but it is also about what we bring as a group, and we will be right after them.”
That last line hangs in the air. England have talked about belief for years. Under Tuchel, with Pickford again standing guard, we are about to find out whether this time the words truly match the bite.
