What follows is an idea of mine which if adopted by the FA would be guaranteed to win England a world cup.
Basically, the FA need to train a penalty saving specialist who can sit on the bench and be brought on in the final minute or extra time should England be heading towards a shootout situation.
What they need to do is create a shortlist of the very tallest young men in the country, perhaps the top two hundred or something, you know, seven foot tall blokes who're massive lanky bastards, and then invite them all to an evaluation session at Wembley Stadium. The men should be tested for natural aptitude towards saving penalties.
Whoever performs the best should be taken under charge of the FA, given a good wage and begin his training immediately. Training would be full time and restricted to penalty saving and nothing else; eight hours a day training to save penalties, no other goalkeeping or footballing skills are required, just saving penalties all day every day.
After a year or two of hardcore penalty training the result would be that England have this giant seven foot plus penalty saving expert, without doubt the most formidable goalkeeper in the history of the human race in a penalty situation. This player then would then be placed in the England squad to await the fulfillment of his destiny; bring him on with the clock on 120 minutes and there would just not be a chance in hell of England losing a penalty shootout from now until the end of eternity.
We would win untold numbers of world cups with this strategy.
Basically, the FA need to train a penalty saving specialist who can sit on the bench and be brought on in the final minute or extra time should England be heading towards a shootout situation.
What they need to do is create a shortlist of the very tallest young men in the country, perhaps the top two hundred or something, you know, seven foot tall blokes who're massive lanky bastards, and then invite them all to an evaluation session at Wembley Stadium. The men should be tested for natural aptitude towards saving penalties.
Whoever performs the best should be taken under charge of the FA, given a good wage and begin his training immediately. Training would be full time and restricted to penalty saving and nothing else; eight hours a day training to save penalties, no other goalkeeping or footballing skills are required, just saving penalties all day every day.
After a year or two of hardcore penalty training the result would be that England have this giant seven foot plus penalty saving expert, without doubt the most formidable goalkeeper in the history of the human race in a penalty situation. This player then would then be placed in the England squad to await the fulfillment of his destiny; bring him on with the clock on 120 minutes and there would just not be a chance in hell of England losing a penalty shootout from now until the end of eternity.
We would win untold numbers of world cups with this strategy.
No you can't...