By Tim Parsons-
Alan Shearer’s criticism that Gareth Southgate’s judgement was flawed in expecting England’s young penalty takers to succeed in the Euro 2020 final after being absent for practically all the game is correct.
Manchester United ‘s Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Arsenal’s Bukayo Saka, were all very late substitutions in the Euro 2021 final England in what was hoped to be England’s first chance to win a tournament. All three black players missed from the penalty spot, leading to unacceptable racial abuse against the trio on social media.
However, England boss Gary Southgate, has rightly accepted responsibility for the flop, afterm
“It’s a big, big ask. A big ask to put two players on with a minute to go to say you’re going to take a penalty for us,” Shearer told the BBC after England’s cruel defeat against Italy.
“You’re under enough pressure anyway as a player but the extra pressure you’ve put on those individuals when you’ve had no feel of the football, not involved in the game at all and then you’re put in that situation. It’s a big big ask.”
Rio Ferdinand defended Southgate’s decision, saying: “That’s happened for years, people have put players on.
“Maybe not as late but towards the end; the last five, four, three minutes. Players come on this pitch and they go on as penalty takers because they’re recognised,” he added.
“Rashford is a recognized penalty taker for Man United. This happens. We look down the years in tournament football and it’s the biggest players, the best players in the world at times miss penalties.
“These are young kids. They’ve got to ashford was also left to play right-back as a direct replacement for Kyle Walker – effectively ruling out the introduction of any further specialistslook at that. Big players in the past, [Roberto] Baggio’s etc have missed big penalties.”
Rashford distressed after missing penalty in Euro 2021 Image:France 24
However, Shearer added: ”When you’ve not played a huge part in the tournament though Rio, or the game, then to come on and be asked for a minute…mentally in that situation you’ve got to get yourself right.
“You’ve not kicked a football.. You’ve been sat on your backside for three hours.
Southgate insisted after the match that “the calls for the penalties were mine – ”my decision to ask the players to take the penalties that they did”
Involvement in a football match is both physical and mental, and though the decision to rest the young penalty players during the match might have been sensible, resting them for nearly all of the match was not ideal. This teenage players were too young to be put under such pressure in such a big game without the necessary momentum.
Interestingly enough, Marcus Rushford going into this competition had an 89% record on penalties, with 17 penalties scored from 19, while Jadon Sanko had a 92% record with 11 out of 12 penalties scored.
Bukayo Saka was a very bad choice by Southgate to take a penalty at this level. The teenager has never taken a penalty in senior football. At youth level, he had taken two: scored one and missed one. He is not highly ranked at club level when it comes to taking penalties.
Saka should never have been allowed to take a penalty Image: Football.london
Rashford was brought in to play right-back as a direct replacement for Kyle Walker.
Southgate’s judgement can be questioned in selecting these three young players, but the hard truth is that England does not have reliable penalty takers, which is a big minus to the squad’s capabilities.
When asked what he would say to Saka, Southgate replied: “That it’s down to me. I chose the penalty takers based on what we have done in training and nobody is on their own. We have won together as a team and it’s absolutely on all of us in terms of not being able to win the game tonight.
“We had two [penalty takers] go off earlier in the game, so that’s why we made the changes that we did. We have tracked what they have done with their clubs over a long period of time and what they have shown in training as well so that’s the process that worked for us in Russia and the Nations League, but tonight, it has not quite worked.”
What we say to Southgate is that he did well to bring the England squad this far, but his judgement at various points of the game was questionable. He truly should take the blame.