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England’s manager, Thomas Tuchel, has disclosed that his team will adopt the penalty shoot-out strategy developed by Gareth Southgate for the World Cup. Facing DR Congo in their opening knockout match on Wednesday, Tuchel’s squad must be prepared for the possibility of a shoot-out, given the high stakes of the encounter. The game, scheduled for 17:00 BST in Atlanta, will be broadcast live on BBC One and available on the iPlayer.
Before Gareth Southgate took on the role of England manager in 2016, the national team had a poor record in shoot-outs during major tournaments, having won only one out of seven attempts. Southgate’s tenure brought a significant shift in approach, introducing detailed penalty preparation that substantially improved the team’s success, with England winning three out of four shoot-outs since then.
Tuchel confirmed that the current squad continues to adhere to the Football Association’s program, which has been in place for several years. “The FA has a programme that has been in place for years and we follow the programme,” he said. “We are prepared. We have a process, the players have a process.” Despite this thorough preparation, he also acknowledged the difficulty of replicating the intense pressure of an actual shoot-out during training.
Highlighting this challenge, Tuchel referenced a comment by Thierry Henry, who once said that he could not recall the walk from the halfway line to the penalty spot during his first shoot-out for France, suggesting that some aspects of the experience are impossible to rehearse. When asked if the players would have the option to take a penalty, Tuchel replied, “We know who takes them and we know the order but we don’t know who finishes the game.”
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