WHAT a difference a year makes. Last autumn, Jordan Pickford found himself fighting for his future with both club and country. His erratic club form, culminating in the challenge that prematurely ended Virgil van Dijk’s season, saw him dropped by then Everton manager Carlo Ancelotti, while Gareth Southgate, his boss at international level, was facing a chorus of calls to leave the Wearsider out of the England team. A career that had featured a series of stellar rises since his breakthrough days at Sunderland was suffering a marked, and potentially terminal, dip.

Fast forward 12 months or so, and the landscape has certainly changed. With the Golden Glove award from this summer’s Euros in his possession, Pickford is once again being hailed as one of the world’s leading goalkeepers. New Everton boss Rafael Benitez loves him. Southgate is more than happy to describe him as one of England’s key men.

And for the Wearsider himself, the current round of international matches has provided a rare opportunity for reflection. After surviving the most difficult period of his career, Pickford can take justified contentment in just how far he has come.

“Yeah, I think I am,” said the Sunderland-born shot-stopper, when asked at today’s pre-Poland press conference whether he felt he was playing the best football of his career. “I’m getting older and maturing. I’ve got a lot more experience now. Everything’s a learning curve, and for me, it’s just about improving day to day, being consistent over a period of time, and being the best that I can be.”

Pickford’s value was certainly apparent during the Euros as he was a key factor in England’s remarkable run of clean sheets in the early stages of the tournament.

While he was never especially overworked, aside perhaps from the latter stages of the Germany game, when he made a couple of hugely-important saves, his confidence and assurance seemed to permeate through the rest of his side’s defence.

He was the one telling those around him to calm down when the tension was rising against Denmark, and he was also the one sparking the lightning-fast counter-attacks that sliced through Ukraine.

He has always been a supremely-talented shot-stopper, but his decision-making and distribution have improved markedly in the last couple of years, enabling him to play a pivotal role in dictating the pace and style of England’s attacking play.

“We’ve always had belief in his abilities as a goalkeeper,” explained Southgate. “I think that’s been questioned externally, but never internally. His performances have always warranted that faith.

“There’s the goalkeeping ability of keeping the ball out of the net, and then there’s his ability with his feet, which is so important in the modern game. He’s got a fantastic range of passing, and the way that we want to play, that is very important. In the last six months in particular, his calmness in the matches has been a real stand-out and a progression. That’s never been an issue in our games, but I think generally across the board, that’s an area he’s paid attention to and he’s certainly seen the rewards in his performances.”

Pickford agrees, citing a more nuanced appreciation of the state of a game as a key element in his improvement since he left Sunderland in the summer of 2017.

Even in his time as a Sunderland player, the quality of his distribution could be remarkable, with his scissor-style kicks regularly picking out attacking team-mates.

What has changed is his ability to read the game and work out when he should be launching the ball upfield at pace and when he would be better to retain possession in order relieve some of the pressure on his defenders.

“The biggest thing that’s changed is my decision-making,” said Pickford. “Making the right pass at the right time, and deciding whether to go for a counter-attack or if I need to take the sting out of the game and give the lads a breather. I’ve always felt I’ve been good at distributing the ball, it’s just about doing it at the right time and looking after the lads."