Footage Appears To Show Southgate's Choice To Take England’s Next Penalties

Footage appears to reveal Gareth Southgate's choice for England's next penalty takers.

The England manager was briefing players ahead of the spot-kicks and turned to Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka.

PA

The footage below suggests that Southgate was also preparing Jordan Pickford and Kalvin Phillips for the sixth and seventh penalties in the shoot out for the Euro 2020 final against Italy on Sunday night.

This has led to criticism with regards to the order of penalty takers when it comes to choosing players such as Raheem Sterling and Jack Grealish.

Former Manchester United captain Roy Keane was one of those questioning Gareth Southgate's decision. Speaking on ITV, he said: "If you're Grealish or Sterling, you can't have a young kid step up in front of you.

"You can't sit there and say 'I see a 19-year-old kid walk in front of me, when I've played a lot more games, a lot more experience...' and Sterling, who has won trophies.

"I'm not saying he [Saka] wasn't prepared, he might have been [penalty taker] six or seven, [but] you can't sit there. It must be hard to take. You've got to get in front of this kid and say 'listen, I'm gonna step up in front of you'."

PA

Jose Mourinho told talkSPORT: "The decision of the penalty talkers, I think it is hard to leave Saka as the last one. I think it is hard for a kid to have everything on his shoulders at that moment. I just feel very sorry for him.

"In this situation where was [Raheem] Sterling, where was (John) Stones, where was (Luke) Shaw?

"I feel that Gareth is such an honest guy. Such a protective coach of his players. I don't think he would ever say players were not ready [to take a penalty]."

The Aston Villa midfielder was quick to hit back at those suggesting that he stepped aside and used his Twitter account to respond.

He wrote: "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..."

Topics: SPORT, Entertainment

Rebecca Shepherd

I'm Becky - a journalist at LADbible. I graduated with a First Class BA in Journalism before going on to cover criminal court cases, medical tribunals and breaking news for the national media - which inevitably and eventually became as glum as it sounds. Can often be found rocking a bag for life - which I made a 'thing' way before Rihanna. You can contact me at [email protected]

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