Burnley boss Sean Dyche believes Nick Pope is “pushing hard” to be England’s number one. The 28-year-old earned his third cap in the friendly win over Wales, starting in what was his first Wembley appearance for the Three Lions. Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford went on to get the gloves for the subsequent Nations League matches against Belgium and Denmark. But Dyche believes Pope is posing stiff competition on the international scene, and a selection dilemma for manager Gareth Southgate.
Sean Dyche said “It is up to Gareth. I think there’s a lot of noise out there just now, outside of Gareth and myself, with pundits and other people in football talking about it. I’m certainly not going to put words into Gareth’s mouth. But I certainly think Popey is pushing hard. If you’re in the squad you’ve got to be considered as someone who can start. I was delighted to see him get a start. I’m still amazed James Tarkowski is not involved. That’s a big surprise to me. Dwight (McNeil) was involved (with England Under 21s) again, and I have to say I totally respect how tough it is for Gareth. You’ve got to look at form, how you want to play etcetera. When I first came here I don’t think anyone would have mentioned any Burnley players in England terms – certainly not in our first promotion season from the Championship. When we were in the Prem you might have thrown Danny Ings and Kieran Trippier on the edge of that, but not really that strongly at that time. But since then we have had a fair bit of recognition. Someone sent me a really nice photograph of four lads from the club standing in a line (for England against Wales) – Tripps, Popey, Keano (Michael Keane), and Danny and hopefully that shows the progression we’ve made and what we helped them achieve as players. They’ve all done well at Burnley, and gone on to play for England, and that’s a big thing for a club like us. The thing about goalkeepers is you need to be resilient mentally, and your focus needs to be hot on what you have to do, and I think he has both those qualities. I think he’s a top keeper, and it’s rare that even type of keepers don’t have a bad moment, and at Newcastle he had one – but he hasn’t had many by the way, and he’s had a lot of very good moments for us.”
Pope bounced back from a mistake which led to a penalty in the defeat at Newcastle in Burnley’s last game before the international break. But Dyche feels that resilience is characteristic of his keeper.
