Gareth Southgate has admitted the racist abuse directed at his England players after last summer’s Euro 2020 penalty shoot-out heartbreak has only added to the tension surrounding spot kicks.
England, who have a famously poor record when it comes to penalties in competitive games, came up short in the final of Euro 2020 as Bukayo Saka, Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho all failed from the spot – with the trio targeted by vile racist abuse on social media immediately.
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When asked whether the black players in his England squad could feel extra pressure on penalties because of the fear of abuse, Southgate admitted: “We’re goosed then. We’ve got 55 years of talking about penalties and everything else.
“So we’ve now got another layer that’s going to make it extremely difficult for us to win anything.”
He continued: “Indirectly, we have created another layer of difficulty in overcoming a penalty shoot-out. I have got to take all of those things into consideration and it is incredibly complex.”
Aside from the psychology behind penalties, Southgate admitted England may need to do more work from the spot as very few of his players are regular takers for their clubs.
“We only had [Harry] Kane and Rashford who was the second one in after Bruno Fernandes really,” he conceded.
“We have got to do that work. Maybe they are getting some practice with clubs, which definitely Chelsea and Liverpool did this year.
“But we’ve got to cover that work in our camps on the days we can and make it really focused and specific. We’re doing what we can. Psychology is definitely a part of it and I have to be aware of all of those things.”
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