Is it possible to win a World Cup without an elite level goalkeeper?
Brazil may have proved the exception over the years but recent history suggests not.
The last four finals have featured some of the best we have known in modern times. Hugo Lloris in 2018, Manuel Neuer in 2014, Iker Casillas in 2010 and Gianluigi Buffon in 2006 all won the trophy.
For some time, England have not been quite so well stocked.
The days when goalkeepers of the calibre of Ray Clemence, Joe Corrigan and Phil Parkes could not get into the team are now as distant as they sound.
Jordan Pickford shone in 2018, saving a penalty in England's shootout win against Colombia
His temperament was still questioned, with concerns that he was too emotional in goal
In Qatar though, England do have a goalkeeper who has matured to a level that now sees him as an automatic pick, a player who will be a key part of anything that England manage to do well in the middle East.
Jordan Pickford, the Everton goalkeeper, has been England's No 1 going back to before the last World Cup four years ago.
Only now has the 28-year-old established himself as a goalkeeper of genuinely top-class quality.
He has always been a terrific, agile and natural shot-stopper. If you treasured this article therefore you would like to receive more info concerning Kampus Terbaik Lamongan generously visit our own webpage. This is what saw him lauded as one of the heroes of England's progress to the semi-finals in the 2018 World Cup.
But anyone who watched Pickford properly in that tournament will have seen an excitable and emotional goalkeeper, one who would too often bring a little panic to those playing in front of him with the unpredictability of his attempts to organise a back four.
At Everton, at least one manager recognised this.
Marco Silva, now doing well at Fulham, said publicly that Pickford needed to prove himself capable of being calmer. As the great Peter Shilton once said, the really good goalkeepers tend to be the ones you don't really notice unless they are actually handling or kicking the ball.
Not everything has been smooth for Pickford since the last World Cup, despite his tally of 45 caps at a relatively young goalkeeping age.
His form during the period of Covid lockdown was relatively poor and the untidy challenge that left Virgil van Dijk with a seriously injured knee in a Merseyside derby in October 2020 saw him subjected to the kind of abuse on social media that nobody who plays sport for a living should ever be subjected to.
Pickford was abused on social media after his untidy challenge injured Virgil Van Dijk in 2020
Pickford wondered for a while why his public image as a footballer was not as he thought it should be and reached out to a PR professional for some help.
He also worked hard on his football, especially his distribution, which we know to be so important.
A source who knows him well told Sportsmail this week: ‘Some of the criticism did sting him a little bit. I think he wondered what he had done to deserve it.
He thought quite a lot about that.
‘But in terms of the Van Dijk thing, he was pretty level.