PFA Young Player of the Year: Did Dele Alli really deserve the award?

4) Jordan Pickford

One of the biggest success stories in the Premier League this year has been the emergence of Sunderland’s young goalkeeper, Jordan Pickford.

The 23-year-old shot stopper has been forced into action much more than he would have hoped in his debut year as a starting ‘keeper, but he has stood up to the task on a consistent basis.

Unfortunately, Pickford is not going to win any clean sheet or goals conceded tables. In fact, he has only kept three clean sheets in his 24 starts and has conceded 39 goals in the process (the seventh most in the league). But it could have been a lot worse for Sunderland had it not been for Pickford.

He has performed heroically in goal when he has started and despite him only playing 24 games, he is second in the saves category with 109.

Sunderland may be languishing at the bottom of the table, but this stat shows it would have been even worse had it not been for the superb goalkeeping of their young star,

Sunderland have almost been a two-man-team given the excellent performances of Jermain Defoe and Pickford, and we would not be surprised if a top Premier League club snaps up the young stopper next season.