England have penalty rule that all players must follow in every training session

England have a rule for penalties that all players must follow in every training session.

Historically, England have long been atrocious at spot-kicks. Every knockout phase of a major tournament sees fans, pundits and players carry the trauma of Italia 90, Euro 96 and Germany 2006.

Of course, under Gareth Southgate much work has been done on improving England’s penalty record.

Such efforts saw the Three Lions claim a historic shoot-out victory over Colombia in the round of 16 of the 2018 World Cup, which was then followed by a spot-kick victory over Switzerland to secure a bronze medal in the 2019 Nations League third-place play-off.

While they came up short in their most recent and high-stakes shoot-out against Italy in the final of Euro 2020, Southgate’s tenure has certainly brought newfound confidence to penalty kicks.

Indeed, speaking on Stick to Football, courtesy of Sky Bet, Gary Neville explained the method adopted by England to tackle their penalty woes.

Neville said: “When I interviewed Anthony Gordon, he told me what Gareth [Southgate] does [to decide who will take penalties].

“He pulls three players at the end of practice, takes them to a quiet area, they have a penalty, and they take three each. They have to pick a side, decide where it’s going to go, and that’s what they do.

Gareth Southgate led England to a penalty victory against Colombia in the 2018 World Cup (Getty)

“What we did – when we worked out we had to practice them - we’d have 10 players in one half, and 10 in the other, and we all took them.

“What Sven-Göran Eriksson and Steve McLaren did was whoever had the most penalty successes would be chosen as taking penalties for the game. That’s why Jamie Carragher was brought on – he didn’t miss one.

“We went through a phase of not [practising penalties], then we went through a phase of some did, some didn’t, and then we went through a phase of everyone doing it as if it’s a competition.

“It was interesting seeing how Gareth did it because he has had some success with it. Just taking three players in a concentrated way, making them focus and do it properly.”

Topics: England, Football, Gareth Southgate

Chris Byfield

Sport journalist with experience writing on football, rugby, boxing and the Olympics. I'm also a Crystal Palace fan. Please don't hold this against me.