PENALTIES? Own ’em..don’t fear ’em Southgate on 20 years of hurt and how to exorcise England’s spot-kick ghosts
GARETH SOUTHGATE has spent the last 20 years thinking about penalty shootouts.
Ever since his miss in Euro 96 he has been determined to make sure no more England players go through the torture he suffered.
The prospect of penalties looms almost as ominously for England as having not won a knockout game at a major tourney in 12 years.
They face Colombia in Moscow on Tuesday with the manager knowing if it goes to a shootout history will be against England as they have crashed out of three World Cups and three Euro finals on penalties.
It is why Southgate is determined to make sure the players approach it with confidence rather than fear as they have been practising penalties from day one in their training camp. It almost feels inevitable.
When asked about his own experience at Euro 96, Southgate said: “I have had a couple of decades thinking it through. In defence of the staff there at the time, penalty shootouts weren’t as regular then. We didn’t have as much information as we do now.
“Definitely it’s not about luck. It’s not about chance. It’s about performing a skill under pressure. There are individual things you can work on within that.
“Then when we have studied it there are things that can be unhelpful in terms of their preparation for players at that moment.
“As a staff knowing who is in charge of which bits, who needs to get out of the way, who can speak with clarity to the players. There is lots we can do to own the process rather than be controlled by it.”
Southgate considered staging a shootout after one of the World Cup warm-up friendlies, they have been totting up the stats after every training session and have used a sports psychologist on a regular basis.
The last defeat on penalties came at Euro 2012 against Italy. England’s only success was against Spain in Euro 96. It means England have the worst record at shootouts in the world.
Incredibly, Southgate was not even expecting to take a penalty against Germany in the Euro 96 semis and only stepped up after England boss Terry Venables’s coach Bryan Robson quickly looked for willing players at the end of the game.
He said: “I was a volunteer really. The type of character I was who felt you should put yourself forward.
“It is probably braver not to if you’re not confident. We will have a more considered list of who has been finishing in training, what the numbers should be unless they’re injured. If we’ve made changes we keep updating the list.
“There are players who take them regularly and have their own routine and are able to maybe change decision depending on the goalkeeper and others who maybe don’t take them as regularly who need to probably practise one or two stock penalties they are able to execute at that moment.
“Some we shouldn’t be interfering, others we are giving them a process which we believe will help them.”
What has happened since the 2006 World Cup (when they beat Ecuador in the last 16 then inevitably went out to Portugal on penalties) has generally been turn up at a major tournament and go home as soon as they play anyone decent.
And that is not including Iceland. Germany put England out of the 2010 World Cup, Italy beat England on penalties at Euro 2012, they did not get out of the group in 2014 and Iceland inflicted humiliation on Roy Hodgson at Euro 2016. The challenge to Southgate has already been laid down by his FA bosses to win a knockout tie, although that came with the caveat it is not the be all and end all for a man they want to stay in charge for the next four years at least. But it is not something the manager fears and he is confident they can end the dismal run. He said: “It’s exciting. It’s one of the reasons why we’ve done what we did against Belgium, to give ourselves the best possible opportunity of doing that. “Already in this tournament we’ve shown we players who on the world stage have performed at a good level. “There have been many different reasons for not getting over the line. Some disciplinary, some have been penalty shoot-outs. But more often than not we’ve not been able to win those matches in normal time or in extra time.
“But the main reason is the level of the opposition is the very best. They pose you different technical and tactical challenges.
“We’ve at times had a squad with real top players and at times we’ve had a squad with not such outstanding players.
“But we have some top players and some who are on their way to being top players.
“We’re still a long way from perfect. There were still moments from a lot of those players of flashes of what they’re capable of, which will give them individual belief.”