England working out on Penalties

Today Gareth Southgate said that regularly practicing penalty shoot outs will be key to England chances of success at the coming World Cup in South Africa.

England has many times sent out crashing due to miss in penalty shoot outs. In other words we can say that England have a poor record in penalty shoot outs. World cups in 1990, 1998, 2006 and European championships in 1996, 2004 all saw them going home after losing their nerve from the spot.

Southgate, who won 57 caps and represented England at two World Cups, warned that even the squad's most accomplished penalty takers would find it hard to blank out the pressure. Fabio Capello will have his strategy and will know who his best penalty takers are. But it does not guarantee anything. Sometimes guys miss when you really expect them to score. Nothing can prepare you for the pressure. For example we saw Frank Lampard miss one in the FA Cup Final, yet he is a consistent penalty taker. There is always that element that something like that can happen in any shoot out.

But there is a believe that like any skill the more you practice it can make you so comfortable with things that you can handle things normally under pressure. And again there can come a situation where England might need a penalty score to live in the game. Southgate has backed the 22 year old to be named in England's final 23 man squad. He added " Adam is a very exciting player. He had an unbelievable rise this year and I would be very tempted to take him as he is a different type of player to the other ones we have. He had a marvelous season, and whatever happens he had made his mark. If he makes it, it's a huge bonus. "