A way to improve England's chances at success in major football tournaments?
The other day I had an idea, a vision if you will, of how we might make some amendments to the English leagues to improve the chances of the national side progressing beyond the second round. As we approach Euro 2016, my mind goes back to our terribly scratchy performance against Italy in the last tournament, in which we clung on for a penalty shootout despite the horrible inevitability of that sealing our fate. The failure of English teams to perform well in penalty shoot-outs is well-documented - I believe that the only team worse than us is the Dutch.Here is my suggestion, it's pretty simple and wouldn't take much implementing, although it might make life difficult for historians of football and statisticians who like to be able to compare teams across the years.
Here it is: Award 3 points for a win (as present), award 1 point for a draw (as present), but award an extra point for a penalty shoot-out victory. This can then be regarded as a winning-draw (a bit like in village cricket, where points are awarded to reflect the relative superiority of one side in a fixture where the result is not resolved).
My proposal means that players will receive regular practice of taking penalties in a competitive environment. We often hear that English teams have been "practicing pennos'" in training, but I suspect that these may be rather jocular, matey affairs which do little to prepare players (and let's not forget that includes goalkeepers too) for the reality of taking part in competitive penalty shoot outs.
Here it is: Award 3 points for a win (as present), award 1 point for a draw (as present), but award an extra point for a penalty shoot-out victory. This can then be regarded as a winning-draw (a bit like in village cricket, where points are awarded to reflect the relative superiority of one side in a fixture where the result is not resolved).
My proposal means that players will receive regular practice of taking penalties in a competitive environment. We often hear that English teams have been "practicing pennos'" in training, but I suspect that these may be rather jocular, matey affairs which do little to prepare players (and let's not forget that includes goalkeepers too) for the reality of taking part in competitive penalty shoot outs.