Southgate’s men are ready to step up to the spot

GARETH Southgate has long since got over his personal trauma as his England team approach Colombia in the World Cup last 16 tomorrow.

“I have had a couple of decades of thinking it through,” the 47-year-old said with a wide grin.

The England coach wants to turn the worst experience of his career into a positive and with it, banish the trauma that affects the whole of English football: penalties.

The word alone makes English fans tremble. And Southgate himself probably struck the most fatal of England’s 12 infamous missed penalties.

Against Germany at Euro 96, he didn’t just miss the decisive penalty. He was the only player to miss. In the semi-final. In his own country. England’s first win at a major tournament since 1966 had never seemed more achievable – and they’ve never been as close since.

That’s also down to those damned penalties. Six times England have gone out of major tournaments after a battle of nerves from the spot. Only once have they prevailed. No other team has a worse record.

Southgate, the man foiled by Andreas Koepke at Wembley Stadium on June 26, 1996, of all people wants to change that.

But that’s exactly the experience that the 47-year-old wants to use. After 22 years of thinking about it, he’s come to a realisation: “Definitely, it’s not about luck. It’s not about chance.”

That might come as a shock to the English, who had always explained their regular failure in penalty shoot-outs by saying that it was simply bad luck. Clearly, the gods of football were against them.

Southgate wants to prove the opposite. “In penalties it’s about performing a skill under pressure,” he says. “There are several parameters that influence that. Through those you can increase significantly the probability of success.”

For that reason England’s players have practised penalties after every training session since March. And they’ve undergone a number of psychological tests in order to find out which of them seems best suited to the situation – and to help them feel confident.

In that 1996 semi-final against Germany England coach Terry Venables apparently asked off the cuff who would like to take a penalty. Southgate volunteered because he felt he had to take responsibility.

“Today I know that it’s maybe braver to admit that you don’t feel confident,” he said.

With the current squad there is an extensive list of who has scored the most penalties in simulated match-day conditions in training. “They’ve developed a certain routine and confidence,” Southgate says. Above all he believes that he knows every player’s preparation routine.

“Some don’t want to be disturbed, some need help and encouragement,” he says.

Even that is noted down. Last but not least, the behaviour of the non-participants is regulated clearly. “It must be calm around the players, we can’t allow any nervousness,” he says. “There can’t be too many voices in the players’ heads.” Southgate has already achieved something important: natural English pessimism has given way to total self-confidence. Asked if he would take a penalty, Dele Alli replies firmly: “Of course. We’re well prepared.”