Whilst there wouldn’t have been many that were looking forward to a third international break in just ten weeks, one man who certainly benefitted from the latest England action is Jordan Pickford.

Awarded his full national debut by Gareth Southgate as a result of a late injury sustained by Jack Butland, the Everton goalkeeper was a stand-out performer as England played out a very uncharacteristically entertaining 0-0 draw against the reigning world champions Germany last Friday.

A performance of such stature would no doubt have pleased the 23-year-old after a thoroughly testing start to his Everton career since his £30 million summer switch from Sunderland – a record fee for a homegrown goalkeeper – which has seen the Toffees struggle at the wrong end of the table.

Their Premier League woes have merely been compounded by a poor Europa League campaign, in which they are already knocked out after just four matches, and although the blame for Everton’s form doesn’t lay on the shoulders of Pickford he’s still had to pick the ball out of his net on 31 different occasions.

This has come from just 13 games, and for someone with England aspirations, it is not great reading.

Yet the youngster certainly defied his track record this season when he took centre stage against Germany at a packed-out Wembley Stadium, repelling everything the opposition tried on the night.

He was assured and alert from the very first whistle against esteemed opponents, rushing quickly off his line to clear up after a poor back-pass from Harry Maguire, before getting down extremely well to deny the in-form RB Leipzig striker Timo Werner on two separate occasions inside the opening 45.

Add to this his impressive distribution and the confident manner in which he patrolled his area and Pickford certainly gave boss Southgate something to think about ahead of the World Cup next year.

So after a morale-boosting display for England, can he translate this to his domestic form?

The thing is, despite conceding 21 of Everton’s 22 Premier League goals this campaign – the joint-third worst record in the top-flight – Pickford has been one of the few bright sparks for the Toffees.

As alluded to earlier, it would be very harsh to say that Pickford has been at fault for Everton’s poor start to the 2017-18 campaign, a start that signalled the end of Ronald Koeman’s tenure as manager.

The England Under-21 star has been averaging three saves per match – a rate that only Swansea’s Lukasz Fabianski and Burnley’s Nick Pope can better – and he’s made the third-highest number of key saves in England’s top division after 900 minutes of football, making 30 in his ten appearances.

The fact is that there’s only so much defence that Pickford can put up himself against constant opposition sieges on his goal, and if Everton’s back-line continue to allow as many shots on their own goal and leave Pickford vulnerable then it’s always going to be just a matter of time before one finds its way into the net.

Yet, with Koeman now out of the door, a new manager brings a sense of opportunity to Goodison Park and Everton’s leaky defence could have the potential to become a much more tight and compact unit.

If so, it could give Pickford more chances to shine and offer more Draft Fantasy clean sheet points.

With Everton still in the midst of their downward spiral, and with a new manager no closer to being announced, it is perhaps wisest to leave Pickford out of your thoughts for the time being, but as the season goes on it’ll be interesting to see how he goes now that he has a spot on a plane to Russia firmly within his sights.