Ivan Toney had just two touches of the ball after coming on as a 109th-minute substitute for England in their Euro 2024 quarter-final win against Switzerland.
You would do well to recall the first, a flick-on from a long Jordan Pickford punt upfield that fell to a Swiss player. His second will live much longer in the memory of the 7,000 England fans inside the stadium and the millions more crowded around TV screens in beer gardens and living rooms back home.
England led 3-2 on penalties when Toney strode forward to take their fourth kick. The Brentford striker dispatched it emphatically, sweeping his attempt beyond Yann Sommer to maintain the Three Lions’ two-goal advantage before Trent Alexander-Arnold confidently completed the job with the fifth.
It was typical Toney, from the preparation to the execution to the result. Those unfamiliar with Toney’s technique marvelled at the novelty of it: the casual stroll to the ball, the eyes fixed, unblinking on the keeper, the accuracy to locate the bottom corner.
Others who knew what to expect were still taken aback by the bravery. Taking a spot-kick like that for Brentford in the Premier League is one thing, doing so for England in a knockout game at a major tournament is another proposition entirely.
It was what Toney was sent on to do. Gareth Southgate picked him in his squad after a difficult season at club level with that exact moment in mind. Penalty-taking is Toney’s tournament trump card and one that he used when dealt the hand.
“I never look at the ball,” the Brentford striker said. “Considering it is my routine I just think it is what I do but some people may see it as crazy. But it is just my routine and I’ll stick to it. It’s been working and it can work whenever it is needed.”
i spoke to Geir Jordet, author of Pressure: Lessons from the psychology of the penalty shootout, to break down Toney’s distinctive penalty-taking style.
Step one: the approach
Penalty shootouts are a form of psychological warfare in which the goalkeeper and attacker are the actors trying to gain an advantage over the other. Key to Toney’s method is maintaining composure and control in the heart of the battle.
“Looking at the goalkeeper as he’s kicking the ball is such an incredibly sophisticated cognitive, motor piece of skill. It’s hard to even imagine doing that type of skill when the pressure is so on,” Jordet says.
“To get to the level of clarity in his head, the level of lucidity, the level of focus, he needs to do something leading up to it, he can’t just step up to the ball and just do this. You have to be emotionally so extremely in control.
“Seeing him walking towards the ball when he takes him out is, is he has a very clear, structured, routine. His behaviours are very polished. He does the same every time.
“Yesterday, I think he stood there for seven seconds which signifies that it’s something that is very deliberate for him, like he’s actively trying to gain emotional control in the moment.
“And that is, I think just beautiful to watch and a big piece of art the way that he effectively does that.”
Step two: the pause
Toney has modified his technique as his career has progressed. A source at Peterborough United, where Toney played before Brentford, told i that his penalties are different now compared to when he was at Posh.
Research from Jordet in March 2022 underlines a factor that Toney has undoubtedly tweaked: his reaction time from the moment a referee blows their whistle to his strike on goal. Effectively, he has deliberately made it longer.
“What you see is that in Shrewsbury in League Two and Peterborough in League One, he had a very short reaction time to the whistle. He spent about one second, and then a little bit more than one second, to react to the whistle.
“Then he takes the penalty for Brentford in the Championship in 2020 and suddenly he takes seven seconds which tells me that he came to Brentford and they basically taught him a new pre-shot routine.”
Not looking at the ball? No problem!
— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) July 6, 2024
Ivan Toney#BBCEuros #Euro2024 #ENGSUI pic.twitter.com/WHejIyQMDb
Incidentally, Toney took seven seconds before firing home against Switzerland.
He adds: “It indicates that they’re [the player] deliberately doing something to gain control in the situation.
“It’s never a guarantee for a goal but it’s something that they’ve practiced.”
Step three: the execution
In previous eras, players were instructed to pick a side and stick with it. Nowadays, an increasing number are waiting for the keeper to make the first move before deciding where to shoot. Jordet calls this a “goalkeeper dependent strategy”.
“It’s been around for a long time,” Jordet explains. “Maradona did it back in the eighties. Cantona did something similar. Robert Lewandowski has been using this approach with a lot of success.”
By watching the keeper on his approach, Toney is looking for clues as to where they plan to dive. However, even if they delay and end up going the same side as his penalty, as Sommer did, Toney’s technique gives him a good chance of beating them anyway.
“What’s unique about Toney is that he has a power in his foot and he has precision. And so with that power and precision, he will put the ball into the corner of the goal so that the goalkeeper will not get to it even though he guesses correctly.
“And that’s what makes this so unique because most other players who have the goalkeeper-dependent technique, they don’t have that kind of hold back technique that Toney has.”
Can it be stopped?
Technically yes. Toney has missed only one of his 24 penalties for Brentford, against Newcastle United in April 2023 with Nick Pope, his international colleague with England, the keeper to deny him. That is significant given Toney will have faced him on numerous occasions in training.
According to Jordet, keepers have only two tricks they can use to keep Toney out: “stand still and hold their position for a long time,” or use “deception” to prompt him into shooting where they want him to.
Even then, it might not be enough.
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