ENGLAND'S perfect penalty shootout has been six years in the making. The five takers and keeper Jordan Pickford are the heroes, but there has been an immense amount of work behind their success . From bottles to breathing and buddies, England covered everything.
Gareth Southgate 's eye for detail is famed and touches every aspect of tournament football with the Three Lions. But he and his team went above and beyond to overcome the greatest of English hurdles. In 2018 a five-man penalty project team was established, including Chris Markham - the then game insights lead for The FA.
Markham reached out to Geir Jordet - a Norwegian sports psychologist who is a leading expert on spot kicks, dubbed 'The Penalty Professor'. Markham and his team had read Jordet's comprehensive book, Pressure: Lessons from the psychology of the penalty shootout, and were keen to pick his brains. Jordet's influence on England's development from there has been at arms length - he has not talked with Southgate - but the signs that they have learned from him were all over Saturday's nights shootout.
He told SunSport: "I was very impressed that they started this project back in 2018. BEST FREE BET SIGN UP OFFERS FOR UK BOOKMAKER S By Charlie Wyett After England beat Colombia on penalties at the 2018 World Cup, one of the first people that Southgate texted was the FA’s game insights lead, Chris Markham, to thank him for all his efforts. In Geir Jordet’s book - Pressure: Lessons from the psychology of th.