It's a load of showy bollocks from an interplanetary ego. Unless you are similarly endowed, don't try to emulate it. You'll look like a fake, and if, and when it backfires, a knob, plus you won't have the fallback 'don't give a shit' ego that allows you to move on as a Ronaldo, Neymar or a Zlatan would.His whole approach with where he stands before the ref blows his whistle, then taking a few steps to left, before that run up is a copied from Neymar.
You've hit the nail on the head here about Southgate. Yes, he's a nice guy and we all feel terrible for the players but if the FA created a bot to manage the national team it would be Southgate. Every single (eventual) decision he made was based on numbers. It got him so far but sport and football in particular doesn't work just on numbers. As soon as his statistical based predictions on how the game would pan out didn't work he looked devoid of ideas and unable to cope with the emotive side of the game.I expect what happened is Saka got picked because he was high up the league table among the squad. You can see in the video going round, Southgate is dithering on the last taker, probably because he didn't want to pick such a young kid, but in the end as is very typical for this England side, they trusted the numbers.
There is research behind it. The later in the shoot out the penalty is, the more pressure there is on the taker. The better a penalty taker is, the better they tend to cope with that pressure. Doesn't always work out and there are a few counter arguments but ultimately there are solid reasons to do it.So right that last sentence, how many teams put their regular or number 1 penalty taker last?
Happened last night with Jorginho.
Baffles me.
Even I voted for that outcome (and an Italy win) and I'm normally shit at predictions.Not only that. Everybody knew as soon as the two finalists were known that there was a decent chance of this going to penalties. There will have been some discussion between Southgate and the players individually about how they felt about it, in advance. I'd be utterly astonished if there wasn't. Because that's how management works. And Raz may well have said — not out of any fear of his own ego being bruised, but with the best interests of the team at heart — no, there are others here who are better at it than me, their track record proves it, if it comes to penalties, they should be the ones. This is not a question of having balls, or having heart. It's a question of being responsible to the greater interests of the collective. If the list in @domalino post #295 above is to be trusted, Rashford has a very good record on penalties, and Sancho, while not having taken many, is 100%. Both in any case better than Raheem's. Raheem does many good things on the pitch. Apart from anything else, he is a superb diver (nota bene: JJ) Penalties isn't one of them.
Saka, though, is a strange choice, assuming it was taken in advance. And if he said yes, well, that's youth rushing in. Southgate shouldn't really have envisaged it. Has to be said, though, the main damage had been done at that point.
Haven't paid any attention to the media, incidentally. It'd wind me up too much. Are there really papers and pundits blaming Grealish and Sterling? Did that fucker Keane really put blame on both of them? I wish he'd just fuck right off. Preferably to Wormwood Scrubs, for a good long stretch — for criminal assault.
The Goat just wasn't easy on the eye (let's face it, he wasn't) but it took quite a few fans to realise, he possessed that priceless commodity of being able to put the ball in the back of the net (or trickle over the line), I'm still convinced had he hit every shot sweetly, his numbers would be halved.Reminds me of when Nicky Weaver said he had to save Gillinghams 4th penalty in the play off final because he knew The Goat was due to take our next one!
Loved The Goat (obviously) and he scored shit loads for us.Think he may have scored a couple from the spot for us(not sure?) but don't think I'd have had total confidence in him taking one that day.
He had some grief from the fans initially didn't he!
Personally don't believe there was any real vitriol or a racial element like with Sterling.With Goater, i just think it was us blues mistakenly probably thoinking he was just another shit player joining our really shit team at the time!! (proved us wrong didn't he!)
I think it's known as the Pogba/J-Lingz effect.It's a load of showy bollocks from an interplanetary ego. Unless you are similarly endowed, don't try to emulate it. You'll look like a fake, and if, and when it backfires, a knob, plus you won't have the fallback 'don't give a shit' ego that allows you to move on as a Ronaldo, Neymar or a Zlatan would.
In other words, don't fanny around, just concentrate on doing your job well.
There's certainly a value to simply being in the right place at the right time.The Goat just wasn't easy on the eye (let's face it, he wasn't) but it took quite a few fans to realise, he possessed that priceless commodity of being able to put the ball in the back of the net (or trickle over the line), I'm still convinced had he hit every shot sweetly, his numbers would be halved.
There is, and Raz has it. Hence why idiots things he’s a tap in merchant because he’s normally the only England player intelligent enough to get into the right position to finishThere's certainly a value to simply being in the right place at the right time.
There is research behind it. The later in the shoot out the penalty is, the more pressure there is on the taker. The better a penalty taker is, the better they tend to cope with that pressure. Doesn't always work out and there are a few counter arguments but ultimately there are solid reasons to do it.