Gareth Southgate has revealed the racist abuse of England’s players who missed penalties in the Euro 2020 final has “created another layer of difficulty” in the nation’s attempt to win future shootouts.
Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka were racially abused online after missing penalties at Wembley which meant Italy won the European Championship. Saka was 19 years old at the time.
Southgate had picked Harry Kane and Harry Maguire to take England’s first two penalties and they both scored, and in the aftermath, when the England manager later left the team hotel, he questioned whether he was partly responsible for causing the abuse.
“When I left The Grove that day I couldn’t help but feel, ‘Have I created this situation here for the boys?’” Southgate said.
“But it wouldn’t be right to not pick the players you think are best to take them because of what the possible consequences of them missing would be. I’ve got to pick them on the belief they are going to score.”
More from Football
England’s failure in shootouts has been discussed for decades and it felt like a major hurdle was overcome when the team successfully defeated Colombia on penalties on the way to reaching the 2018 World Cup semi-finals.
Indeed, it was seen as a moment that Southgate put to rest the demons of his own missed penalty in the Euro 96 shootout that sent England out of the last four against Germany.
Southgate received plenty of abuse at the time and over the years, but last summer’s final was the first time England players had been abused for the colour of their skin after missing them.
“We’ve got 55 years of talking about penalties and everything else,” Southgate said.
“So we’ve now got another layer that’s going to make it extremely difficult for us to win anything.”
And Southgate added that the “abhorrent” reaction to England’s black players missing penalties creates “another layer of complexity in making that decision. We went through a process of preparing for penalties. We’ve definitely reviewed that.”
One of the issues Southgate and his staff identified was that not enough of England’s players regularly took penalties for their clubs. Kane does so for Tottenham and Rashford was a regular taker for Manchester United, although even he was often behind Bruno Fernandes.
To deal with the problem, England’s players now regularly practise penalties more away from the England camps and are taking more in high-pressure situations at club level.
“Some of the boys have taken more with their clubs,” Southgate said. “Reece James has, I think, had four in shootouts this year. Trent [Alexander-Arnold] has had two. Bukayo has now taken a couple for his club, which were massively courageous moments that epitomised what he’s about.
“But indirectly we have created another layer of difficulty in overcoming a penalty shootout. I have got to take all of those things into consideration and it is incredibly complex.”
He added: “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.”
Kane to wear rainbow-coloured captain’s armband for Nations League games
Harry Kane is set to wear a rainbow armband for the remainder of England’s Nations League fixtures to mark Pride Month.
The England captain wore a rainbow armband when England played Germany in the last 16 of last summer’s European Championship in solidarity with Manuel Neuer, the Germany goalkeeper.
Neuer had worn the armband throughout the group stage which prompted a Uefa investigation, that was later dropped, into whether it breached rules forbidding on-field political statements.
On Saturday, Kane was praised by LGBTQ+ supporters for wearing the rainbow armband in the Puskas Arena – a rare sight in Hungary where the LGBTQ+ community is frequently discriminated against.
And the Spurs striker is set to wear the rainbow armband for Tuesday’s game against Germany and upcoming home fixtures against Italy and Hungary.
England manager Gareth Southgate said in March that he did not believe some LGBTQ+ England supporters would travel to the Qatar World Cup due to the country’s attitudes towards them.
“There are the issues that potentially threaten our fans when they travel: the rights of women and the rights of the LGBTQ+ community in particular,” Southgate said.
“Sadly, through discussions that I’ve had, I don’t think some of those communities are going to go and that’s a great shame.
‘We stand for inclusivity as a team – that’s been the big driver of a lot of the stances we’ve taken in the last couple of years – and it would be horrible to think some of our fans feel they can’t go because they feel threatened or they’re worried about their safety.”
from Football | News and analysis from the Premier League and beyond | iNews https://ift.tt/pyTlAUK
Post a Comment