Jordan Pickford is better than ever at the age of 32 and is not feeling fazed by James Trafford’s challenge for the England No1 jersey, according to Everton boss David Moyes.

Trafford, who signed for Leeds from Manchester City in the summer after starring in the Carabao Cup and FA Cup finals, elbowed Pickford out of the Three Lions XI for two of four games in the recent international window.

But Moyes said: ‘When Jordan came back from the World Cup, it might be the best I have ever seen him. He was lean, sharp, his footwork was brilliant, he was fast across the goal. He has made a couple of brilliant saves (this season).

‘He is lean and ready to train. I talked to him about it, I said; “You know you have a bit of competition now with Trafford, how are you going to deal with it?” and I don’t see Jordan falling away at the moment.

‘I see Jordan keeping his pride because he wants clean sheets, he wants to keep the ball out of the net. Somewhere along the line there is a whippersnapper coming who tries to challenge you, but if it really mattered to England, Jordan would still be the one who was there.

‘He has that experience and he is not ageing. Jordan is a terrific kicker of the ball, he is a better kicker than Trafford, but passing is a different equation. One of the first passes in England’s game against the Czech Republic, Jordan played a long ball and put Morgan Rogers through. So he has got that.’

Pickford is all but guaranteed his spot at Everton but one player under some pressure at Hill Dickinson Stadium is Jack Grealish, with the energetic winger Tyrique George, 20, breathing down his neck after a strong start to the season.

George, who signed from Chelsea in the summer, will face his old team on Saturday if picked and Moyes added: ‘We like Tyrique a lot. I want to get him some rhythm, he had a bit and then we took it away because we wanted Jack’s experience.

‘Tyrique is well in our thoughts. He has to keep learning, getting better, but he has the ability to beat people, to score, we don’t want to knock him down but he is still a young boy.

‘Tyrique is knocking on the door. He started a bit slowly and then picked up. Jack is aware that Tyrique is there. We think he can do a job on both sides as well.’

Jarrad Branthwaite is hopeful of being fit after managing a problem this week, while left back Vitalii Mykolenko is pushing to return from an injury. Christian Norgaard is also on the comeback trail but won’t be fit enough to start.