Due to England's inability to win matches through penalties, England manager Roy Hodgson, has begun considering his options to help the underachieving national side overcome their unexplainable handicap.

As far as any football fan can remember, penalty kicks have been the bane to England's otherwise excellent footballing game. From the 2006 World Cup loss to Portugal to the humiliation at the hands of Italy in the Euro 2012, what has perhaps been England's finest generation of players in recent memory have found it hard to excel in international competitions as the penalty spot appears to be their worst nightmare.

"I'm not sure shipping someone in to give the players a lecture will work. It will have to be somebody who gets to know them. I think there's a possibility that we should just be encouraging players to know their penalty, to practise their penalty." "We need to know that when they go up they are as well prepared as they can be. It will be about their character, their confidence and their ability to block out the next morning's headlines. If a psychologist can find a way to block that out then we'd be very, very happy," said Hodgson.


Daily Sabah / Istanbul