Quote Originally Posted by animallittle3 View Post
Unfortunately Pass the facts don't back that up .

Our record in penalty shootouts which is high pressure is woeful , 22% success rate , clearly it's not a 50/50 thing because if it was we'd have a 50% success rate because those are the laws of probability .

I keep hearing the word potential with this England team , well potential has to deliver at some point otherwise potential becomes a cover for failure .

There is no glorious failure with England , we are one of the major football nations , the amount of money that goes in to the entire England set up is huge , it's mega money .

Our record at tournament football is shameful , an embarrassment .

I don't expect a shirt full of stars that the Brazilians and Germans have but we should have added to our solitary world cup win at least once plus a couple of finals and at least a Euro title and a couple of finals .

A 50% success rate in penalty shootouts would in my opinion have seen that solitary world cup added to .

It's simply not good enough and we shouldn't be letting anyone off the hook .

The last two tournaments were winnable and we blew both because we are weak in the head .

Unacceptable .
I agree that there's no arguing with the facts of past tournaments, no argument whatsoever. However, I was alluding to the future and that things can change.

The Cricket team, for instance, had a woeful record in the ashes over a 20 year period until Vaughan and his boys took the urn back in 2005. Between the sides since then, England have given as good as they have taken.

In T20 Cricket, we have won 2 World cups since it's inception in 2007

We finally won the 50 over World Cup in 2019 after years and years of abject failure.

The current test team have taken English test cricket to a level of mentality that I've never seen before and long may it continue.


Now I don't see any reason why this can't happen with our football team. Yes, I get it's been 55 years of hurt and hard luck or bottle. However, i will say this- The team under Southgate won it's first penalty shootout in 22 years in 2018. We then reached a major final for the first time since 1966 in the following tournament. I think that the tide is turning. Getting those monkeys off our back will have enhanced the mentality. Of course the final step and final monkey off our back is to win something and I wouldn't bet against us in the next Euros that's for sure.

The mentality on show against France last Saturday from the players was one of belief and self assurance. I still standby that it wasn't our night and nothing to do with belief and mentality. Had we lost to them on penalties then I would get your point. I think with all due respect you're being a defeatist. Past stats mean nothing when the next tournament comes along. You can only try to move forward and this team is on the right track in my opinion.

For the record- Italy only has a 25% win ratio in World Cup penalty shootouts. They've failed to qualify for the last 2 world cups in succession after losing in play off games. Does it actually mean owt?