Imagine

Having an army of sports scientists and analysts at your disposal, and coming to the conclusion that your deciding penalty should be taken by a 19 year old kid who’s just had a shocking game.

This is why ex footballers should not be trusted to be football managers. Utter, rank stupidity. Just thick. Brain dead. Moronic. Bring in people who understand life and not just dickheads who happen to have been decent at playing the game themselves.

 

Who should manage the team then? What's the saying , if you're good enough, you're old enough. Think there's a bit of straw clutching going on. 2 Italians had their penalties saved too and they were older.

 

Southgate got most things right but having a 19 year old taking the 5th pen is truly mind boggling, even Gareth’s mum would have to admit that.
Still no getting away from the fact that we should also have been more positive with the ball in the second half. The chance of a lifetime has been lost….

 

While the decision was surprising and clearly backfired, Southgate is a highly intelligent man. I'm sure he gave it a lot of consideration before making it. I still don't get it, but I very much doubt it was made without giving a thought to the age, experience etc of the players involved.

 

Id fancied Wayne Rooney at 19 to take that penalty

 

It's all about the self-belief of the player, isn't it. Cristiano Ronaldo even as a kid used to puff his chest out and grin when he was taking a pen, he just gloried in the attention and the challenge of it and sent out signals to everyone that he was not going to miss. He seemed to use the tension as a fuel to charge himself up. Other players are just consumed by it.

 

And Michael Owen

 

Which 19yr old had a shocking game ?

 

Saka came on and did nothing

 

Been one of our shining lights all tournament young Saka and can’t remember him being that bad last night.

 

Easy to say in hindsight but Walker and Henderson would have seemed like decent choices to take penalties.

 

Hes been great throughout the tournament but you are right, he had a poor game yesterday. Tough admittedly as we were being pegged back by the Italians.

 

I was amazed that Henderson wasn't left on to take a penalty.

 

Out of the three who missed:
Rashford takes and scores penalties often for Man Utd
Sancho - has a record of scored 10 missed one, including 3 this season.
Saka only ever taken 2 both non senior games.

Based on that the first two have taken more and scored than any player who didn’t take.

Both S & S granted weren’t great penalties but at least they were on target.

 

Only ever taken 2 in his whole career, one in 2014 and scored, the other in England game just before tournament and missed.

 

Saka had a awful game. One moment 19 year old Saka who had just come on got beat to the ball by 36 year old Chiellini who had with all the injury time added on at the end of every half had played nearly two hours at the time. That said it's Southgate who is to blame for one shot on target in two hours, starting negative with two right backs and not giving a penalty to Sterling, Grealish or Phillips.

 

Valerian Ismael and Danny Wilson want a word.

Not to mention Ferguson, Guardiola, Ancelotti, Mancini, Klopp, Zidane …

 

every player in the squad should be expected to take a penalty no matter what age or record, though i think gareth picked the wrong order of priority, best 1st then move down

 

Walk or run up, bang hit as hard as you can where you've pictured it nestling and don't change your mind. If you're picturing any sort of failure, don't take one.

 

Henderson did less.....