Southgate could have just picked someone else or he could have picked Saka but had him go 2nd or 3rd and let a far more experienced player like Maguire or Rashford go fifth. Despite his miss, there is a reason Jorginho was shooting fifth for Italy, the pressure is just insane at that point in the shootout. Saka might be among the best five takers but he’s also 19 and was obviously very nervy all match beforehand. If you really want him to shoot, then have him go when the entire tournament isn’t being decided on the kick.
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The way Southgate is spinning it though it sounds like Saka was 5th on some kind of internal penalty conversion leaderboard. Almost like volunteering played no part. Maybe he’s lying just saying that as it’s the only way he can absorb all the blame?
Maybe he drew on his own experience and wanted to say ahead of time exactly where everyone was in order so they could get used to the idea rather than whoever wants to volunteer on the night like he did before his limp attempt.
I’ve always found it a bit strange that penalties seems to go down to “who fancies one tonight then lads?” From the way pundits tell it. Seems like terrible preparation to me.
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Grealish himself has come out and said he offered to take one, so we know it wasn’t only those 5. Southgate probably just went with the 5 he thought looked most confident, which is kinda what I was speculating about earlier when I said Grealish may have offered to take one, but was it a half arsed offer where his face showed that he really didn’t fancy it?
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This is just way over the line …
First we condemn the ones who did not step up…
Then we condemn the one who did not look confident.
Pickford, who is not a PK specialist, what if he offered to take the shot yesterday with confidence, should Southgate pick him???
The one to make the final call, was Southgate.
There were 10 outfielders, and Saka is not a PK specialist, nor an experienced player.
If we condemn Grealish not looking 100% confident, how about Sterling?? Just 25% confident??
You can see him agreeing to take one though and it wasn’t like he looked like he was shook.
Don’t particularly agree with this, you want your best penalty takers first for that exact reason, on average if you play your weaker ones first you’re more likely to be behind and therefore more pressure for those that go afterwards.
I think the reduced pressure on all subsequent penalty takers has a bigger impact than the pressure on one taker in the possible event they need to score to stay in it.
Same reason why going first means you win ~60% of shootouts, because otherwise you’re likely to always be behind and playing catchup which adds pressure.
The key issue is that there is so much more pressure when your kick could win or lose the match, that’s why its better to go first. The difference between Maguire and Saka isn’t that the former is better (indeed, with low pressure I’m sure Saka is a better penalty taker), its that the former is more likely to handle an extremely pressurized situation like when you’re kicking fifth. So have Saka shoot second with less pressure, knowing that even if he misses its all to play for and others will decide the outcome, and have Maguire shoot last with more pressure.
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This could come either way.
To have the best takers to go first, IF they do score, yes, there is a higher chance to win and less pressure for the takers afterwards.
IF, your best takers miss it, then the pressure would be enormous for the rest.
From what I saw was, Southgate did not expect BOTH Rashford and Sancho would miss and that piled up the tie or lose situation for the least experienced Saka.
HOWEVER, there was no way Southgate pick Saka in the very first beginning, no matter how confident Saka was. There were better/experienced players ahead of him.
Don’t tell me Southgate let Sterling played 120 mintes and he is not good enough to take the PK or he was not planning to make him the first 5. Southgate was so in favor of Sterling and he should be the one of the five.
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At some stage if the shoot outs even, Saka gets called upon in sudden death. It’s in effect what happened.
It’s part of the scenario. Reality is as well it wasn’t a very good penalty.
Absolute legends have missed them in shoot outs it’s not career defining, certainly at his age. England didn’t have a great selection of candidates after the game to guarantee a different outcome.
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Absolutely. Saka should not be worried and should not feel too bad. Total star players have missed penalties on the big stage. It is what it is.
Last night Saka stepped up and took the penalty. At 19 he showed more courage and balls than some of those other guys.
Saka is quickly becoming one of my favourite Arsenal players. No bullshit from this kid, I like it. I hope he becomes a great player the coming years.
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Saka will learn greatly from the last four weeks.
Playing with players better than at his club, playing against players better than at his club, playing in front of a large stadium atmosphere, experiencing the elation of winning and the despair of losing and coming within a hair’s breadth of a trophy.
This will definitely instil a winning mentality in the boy Saka.
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He’s certainly proved a lot of doubters wrong this summer. No doubt he has the right mentality and skill to go very far in the game.
Regardless of how long he stays at Arsenal I’ll always love the guy, so genuine and down to earth. Just hope fate goes he way and he can score a winning goal in a major final…
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Btw Saka was poor last night before the penalty. He should have closed down opponents a lot more.
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Fair criticism. The whole England squad was dire. Harry Kane was invisible, Sterling totally shut down, Phillips was ok on second look, Stones and Macguire did well, Shaw scored so he gets plaudits, Pickford was MOTM in my opinion. Southgate’s tactics were clearly wrong.
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This is nice, but he hasn’t died…
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Sure, but he has suffered the most despicable racist abuse and for a 19 year old that will be a pretty difficult thing to process and move forward from.
Small gestures such as this all add up to hopefully make him feel like he has support and that it’s only a minority who are racist cunts. He knows that anyway but nevertheless it’s a public show of support so it can do no harm.
The club has a huge role to play in getting his head right tbh. There’s no such thing as too much support in situations such as this, but there is definitely something to be said about not giving enough. Behind closed doors he’s probably going to have everybody rally around him but it’s reassuring for the fans to see a bit of that too.
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Big man vibes, he’s a baller
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It’s really a shame that a teenager has to ask adults running these billion dollar companies to get a grip and take action against racist trolls.
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