Gareth Southgate has 'deliberate penalty tactic' that England is likely to use tonight if game ends in draw

Tonight is the night, lads. It's make or break for our dreams of it coming home.

Only the Netherlands stand in the way of the England squad making it to the final of Euro 2024, and a battle against Spain at The Olympiastadion stadium in Berlin on Sunday (14 July).

So this evening is quite a big deal.

We're all still reeling from the nail-biting penalty shoot-out last weekend with Switzerland, as although the Three Lions pulled it out of the bag, our fate in the tournament was up in the air for a minute there.

But there was no need to panic, as Cole Palmer, Jude Bellingham, Bukayo Saka, Ivan Toney and Trent Alexander-Arnold got all five penalties in the back of the net.

And although Brits might have feared one of the England stars was going to bottle it, the boys didn't seem to doubt their success for one second - and apparently, it's all down to Gareth Southgate introducing a 'deliberate penalty tactic'.

So, if we end up going to penalties in the semi-final clash tonight (10 July), just know that the Three Lions supposedly have a trick up their sleeve.

'Buddy system'

According to Professor Geir Jordet, who has been dubbed the 'world leading expert on the psychology of penalties', Southgate went back to the drawing board after England lost out on a win to Italy in the last Euros.

The sports buff, who has extensively studied penalty kicks since 2004, picked up on some extremely interesting behaviours during the shootout against Switzerland last Saturday (6 July).

Detailing his analysis in a thread on X, Jordet wrote: "Against the Swiss, each English penalty taker had a buddy assigned, who would leave the mid circle and greet the penalty taker back into the group after each kick.

"This is consistent with a new trend that teams now not only assign penalty takers, but also assign protectors.

"I assume this buddy would also support their assigned penalty taker if he were to fail," the professor explained.

"This was was painfully lacking in 2021, when Rashford walked 50m alone after his missed shot, while facing a wall of teammates in an interlocked formation as if communicating US vs YOU."

Last week, Kyle Walker was with Palmer, Luke Shaw buddied up with Bellingham, John Stones was there to support Saka and Declan Rice guarded Toney - so win or lose, they maintained a united front, which probably rattled the Swiss.

Essentially, penalties have got a lot more to do with mental warfare than you might think.

'Rehearsed, polished routine'

Jordet pointed out that in the huddle preceding the shootout, Southgate only gathered the 11 players who were on the roster to take a pen and key staff, rather than every man and his dog.

"Fewer people gave Southgate a better overview to effectively assign both penalty takers and buddies," he said.

As well as this, he noticed that 'refreshingly', England players did not constantly interlock their arms while waiting for one of them to take their shot - which, he reckons, 'enables flexibility to offer each other functional social support' if needed.

Speaking to The Athletic about his observations, Jordet - who authored the book Pressure: Lessons from the Psychology of the Penalty Shootout - described Southgate's new approach as 'a rehearsed, polished routine'.

He explained: "It’s screaming that they have everything planned, it’s all deliberate. It’s as close to machine-like penalty-taking as you can get as a team.

"They’ve invented a way to approach this individual event as a collective, team event. They have a structure for preventing the players from going at this alone. A support structure takes down the pressure just a little bit."

Pickford's part to play

Goalkeeper Jordan Pickford also had a key part to play in this, although he's something of a one-man-band in goal.

Eagle-eyed England fans might have noticed that his water bottle was adorned with detailed notes reminding him of how to approach each Swiss penalty taker, while his delaying tactics also might have unnerved some of the Switzerland players.

He hung around the penalty area when Bellingham approached the box after passing his teammate the ball, which Jordet reckons created a '2v1 situation' against the pair of them and Switzerland's goalkeeper Yann Sommer.

Pickford got a telling off from the referee for it, but the professor believes the attempt to unnerve their rival worked.

That's because, according to his research, when players stand in position for their penalty for eight seconds or more, their 'success rate drops to below 50 percent' - and Manuel Akanji, who missed, was stood there for 14 seconds.

On top of all this psychological combat, the fact that Southgate chose a squad with a great track record for penalties has obviously worked in England's favour - with Alexander-Arnold saying his 'belly didn't drop' when he was called up.

"A lot of practice went into that moment. I enjoy it. I knew the spot, I just needed to execute it," he said of his shot.

Southgate also said post-match: "We think we’ve got a good process.

"We’ve been in four, we’ve won three. We got absolutely crucified for the one we lost," he said. "We refined that process a little bit.

"We have more regular penalty-takers in the squad than we had in 2021 and more that have been in shootouts."

And thanks to the 'big chunk of confidence' the Three Lions have got off the back of their success against Switzerland last week, it looks like the lads could roar to victory if they need to rely on Southgate's shootout tactics again.

But let's keep our fingers crossed that it's a clean-cut win without the stress of penalties for us lot tonight, eh?