VIDEO footage has emerged appearing to show Gareth Southgate picking Jordan Pickford and Kalvin Phillips as England’s sudden death penalty takers.
The Three Lions boss took responsibility for England’s shootout defeat to Italy in the Euro 2020 final.
Southgate introduced Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho seconds before the penalty shootout with the duo both missing.
Arsenal wonderkid Bukayo Saka also missed the fifth and final kick as England’s wait for a major trophy goes on.
It appears Southgate was planning for the event of sudden death during a group huddle at the end of extra-time.
Southgate heads towards Rashford, Sancho and Saka before turning his attentions to Pickford and Phillips – suggesting the pair were next in line.
Goalkeeper Pickford is no stranger to a penalty having scored against Switzerland from the spot in the Nations League against Switzerland.
After the contest, ITV’s Roy Keane criticised England’s senior players for letting 19-year-old Saka take the crucial kick – a claim strongly denied by Jack Grealish.
Keane said: “If you’re Sterling or Grealish, you cannot sit there and have a young kid [Saka] go up for a penalty ahead of you, you can’t.
“You cannot let a shy 19-year-old go up in front of you.
“They have a lot more experience, Sterling has won trophies, they had to get in front of the young kid and stand up.”
Grealish responded: “I said I wanted to take one!!!! The gaffer has made so many right decisions through this tournament and he did tonight!
“But I won’t have people say that I didn’t want to take a peno when I said I will…”
According the footage, Grealish was number eight in the pecking order to take a penalty.
Southgate was quick to deflect the blame away from his heroes and said: “I chose the penalty takers based on what we’ve done in training and nobody is on their own.
“We’ve won together as a team and it’s absolutely on all of us in terms of not being able to win the game tonight.
“But in terms of the penalties, that’s my call and totally rests with me.”
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Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
