Aaron Ramsdale on World Cup excitement, learning from Jordan Pickford as a young player and how England prepare for penalty shootout

Aaron Ramsdale has revealed he took inspiration from his England team-mate Jordan Pickford during his days as a young England player.

The Arsenal goalkeeper has been named in Gareth Southgate’s World Cup squad alongside Newcastle’s Nick Pope and Everton star Pickford.

As the trio battle for a place in England’s starting XI, the 24-year-old has revealed how close the three goalkeepers are due to their time with England, even suggesting they team up in a “group effort”, regardless of who receives the gloves.

That said, Ramsdale is still hoping to start the first game against Iran but says whatever happens his first World Cup will be a memorable experience.

Speaking on talkSPORT Drive, Ramsdale said: “It’s tough. The three goalkeepers have a case to start this first game of the World Cup. I think all three of us are in good shape and it depends on the coaching staff and Gareth ultimately what he chooses.

“It would be nice to have a few warm-up games to try and show directly what we can all do, so it all depends on the luck of the draw, but I’ll wait and see.

“It doesn’t matter, it’s a World Cup and it’s my first. I have time on my side and the experience of being there and helping or playing will be amazing.

He added: “The competition is huge and it’s great that all three of us are playing and playing very well, in addition to Dean Henderson who is doing very well at Nottingham Forest.

“The best thing for us is that we have more people playing and that brings out the best in you every week.

“Off the pitch, the goalkeeping union, if we don’t get along or if we don’t train well, it affects every one of us, not just the starting goalkeeper. Whoever it is, we’ll give each our best and it will be real teamwork.

“Jordan [Pickford] is a real character, Popey [Nick Pope] is also a good boy and makes you laugh, so it’s a good group and I’m the youngest, so I’ll try to bring as much energy as possible.

Being the youngest of the three goalkeepers means Ramsdale can benefit from learning from the two eldest, something the Arsenal stopper says he did in his youth when he received distribution advice from Pickford.

He said: “Jordan was one of those when I was growing up and I was in England with the Under-17s or the Under-18s and he was Under-21, he was someone you could watch in practice and he would still have the big side volley and soft left foot.

“I probably watched it very closely and everything, but when you’re in camp you don’t have a lot of time to do too many extra things with travel and everything. You see him day in and day out and his left foot and I really saw when I was younger how good he was.

Of course, the biggest challenge facing England goalkeepers could be the threat of a dreaded penalty shoot-out.

While the Three Lions have enjoyed relative success in this area in recent tournaments, Ramsdale gave an insight into the level of detail they will go into to ensure goalkeepers are as well prepared as possible.

“Our goalkeeping group is so methodical,” he said. “Without giving too much away, we go into the details of the countries we will be playing against.

“As a group of goalkeepers, the goalkeeper coach and the goalkeepers will look at the penalties together, we will make our own contribution to what we think they will do and kind of look at the stats of the game. where they’ve been and will try to decide one.

“It takes a long time with penalties, but in recent tournaments it has worked very well for us, so I think we will continue to do that.”

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