DORTMUND, Germany : “England Shifts Penalty Mentality: Adaptation and Success”, Just like the five shots confidently dispatched to beat Switzerland on Saturday, England’s conversion from one of the worst-performing countries in penalty shootouts to the current.
England’s penalty problems are well documented and when Gareth Southgate took over as manager in 2016 he knew breaking that negative association was one of his most important tasks.
Ironically, Gareth Southgate’s miss in the Euro 96 semi-final against Germany, particularly his decision to volunteer for a penalty despite not being a regular penalty taker, became a focal point of England’s penalty woes. This event highlighted the need for a more strategic approach to penalty-taking and led to changes in England’s mentality and preparation for shootouts in subsequent tournaments.
Former defender-turned pundit Gary Neville spoke last week about how the kickers at the 2006 World Cup were decided by a casual competition in training that ended up with centre back Jamie Carragher among the nominated five.
In the quarter-final shootout against Portugal, he missed the decisive kick at the second attempt after taking his first before the referee had blown his whistle.
That casual approach and consequent regular failing was the background to the FA launching a remarkable plan to investigate everything about England’s relationship with shootouts, something applauded by Norwegian behavioural psychologist Geir Jordet in his book “Pressure. Lessons from the psychology of the penalty shootout”.
The pivotal figure was Chris Markham, an analyst at the FA for four years, who spearheaded an 18-month project aimed at ensuring England could win penalty shootouts at the 2018 World Cup, following a streak of five consecutive losses.
“From a psychological perspective, speaking about a lottery takes ownership away from the players and that was the thing for me, to give them it back.
