Roy Keane slammed Jordan Pickford for lack of concentration at Wembley on Thursday England suffered a 2-1 defeat against Greece.
Fielding an extremely attacking line-up, England looked vulnerable on several occasions during the break and were ultimately punished when Vangelis Pavlidis fired home in the second half.
Judy Bellingham thought he had scored a dramatic late equalizer to spare England's blushes, but Pavlidis' injury-time winner condemned England to their first competitive defeat at Wembley Stadium in four years and their first ever defeat to Greece.
It could have been much worse for Lee Carsley's men on the evening as Greece wasted numerous chances and two goals were ruled out for offside.
Pickford, who gave the ball away cheaply in the build-up to one of Greece's disallowed goals, made another terrible mistake in the first half when he lost possession outside the penalty area.
The Evertonian was heroically saved from a retreating goal kick by Levi Colwill, but Keane was scathing in his criticism of the keeper as he analyzed the mistake on the break.
“It sends a message about the level of concentration that spreads throughout the team,” he told ITV. – He lacked urgency again.
'What is he doing?! Do it quickly. (It's) great defense, very unlucky for Greece, but that's not a good message for Pickford to send.
“That will always be there with Pickford. He won't change now.
Keane also broke into the England defense to open the Greek goal before Pavlidis threaded his way through a flurry of white shirts before slotting past Pickford.
“That sums up England's performance. You recovered the bodies but no one really did their job properly,” said the former Manchester United midfielder.
They think, “Are you going to do this? Will I do it?” How can this happen? Five or six English players around him, great striker, beautiful finishing, but my God, someone has to get into the net.
If something like this happened in training, you would stop the session and say, “Are you taking this seriously?”
“We talked about the words of the last few months, about freedom, style and attacking play, but you still have to master the basics. I come back to this when it comes to proper defense and urgency. England didn't seem urgent.
In his post-match speech, Pickford defended his team's formation but said the team must learn quickly from their mistakes if they are to maintain their Nations League hopes.
I think everyone can see that we weren't at our best today. We are disappointed with ourselves, but failures happen in football,” he told reporters.
“We can learn from them, but we have improved quickly and we need to prepare for Sunday's match against Finland, go away and give our all.”
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