England is heading into another knockout round at a major tournament. And for English fans, that means one thing: the stomach-churning possibility of penalties again.
The Three Lions face Mexico in the World Cup round of 16 on Tuesday. Thomas Tuchel’s squad is younger and less experienced in shootouts than the group Gareth Southgate brought to Euro 2024. That has people talking about who takes the fifth spot if it comes to that.
Alan Shearer already has his list. The former England captain went public with his five choices: Harry Kane, Anthony Gordon, Ivan Toney, Bukayo Saka and Marcus Rashford.
Shearer told Betfair, “I’ve been in that situation where you’ve got your five before the game and there may be only two left on the pitch. So you have to chop and change. But in an ideal world, if it goes to penalties, then those would be my five.”
Kane is the obvious one. He’s automatic. Almost never misses from the spot. He scored in the opening win over Croatia. But after him, things get messy.
Tuchel left Cole Palmer and Trent Alexander-Arnold at home. Both scored in the 2024 shootout win over Switzerland. Palmer especially looked unbothered. Dead calm. That kind of cool isn’t easy to replace.
Jude Bellingham also scored that day in Dusseldorf. He’s still in the squad. But Shearer left him off his list. That raised some eyebrows. Bellingham has the swagger for it. He’s the kind of player who wants the ball in the big moment. But Shearer apparently sees something else there.
England’s relationship with penalties has been complicated. For decades it was pure misery. They lost six of seven shootouts at one point, starting with the 1990 World Cup semifinal against West Germany and including Southgate’s missed kick in the Euro 96 semifinal at Wembley. That one haunted the country.
Then came the reset. Southgate and the FA overhauled everything. They studied a book called “Pressure: Lessons from the psychology of the penalty shootout.” The idea was to treat penalties as a process, not a lottery. Break it down step by step. Remove the idea of luck from the conversation.
It worked. England won their first World Cup shootout in 2018 against Colombia. Kane and Rashford scored. Jordan Pickford saved two. The team won three of their next four shootouts after that, including a Nations League third-place game against Switzerland where Pickford actually scored one himself.
But there was also the Euro 2020 final. That one still stings. Three years ago at Wembley, England lost to Italy 3-2 on penalties. Bukayo Saka missed the decisive kick. He was 19 years old. The abuse he got online afterward was disgusting.
Saka bounced back. He scored against Switzerland last summer. He’s still only 24 now. Shearer clearly trusts him.
Rashford is the wild card here. He’s been in and out of form for years. But Shearer remembers him scoring against Colombia in 2018. That counts for something.
Toney’s technique is worth mentioning. Against Switzerland, he didn’t even look at the ball when he struck it. Just picked his spot and drilled it. That kind of mental game is rare.
Gordon hasn’t been in a major shootout for England. He’d be stepping into pressure cold. That’s either a gamble or a vote of confidence, depending on how you see it.
After the Switzerland win, Shearer gave a speech that went viral. “Pressure? What pressure? Pressure is for tyres!” he said. “It’s a different generation. They don’t feel it.”
We’re about to find out if that’s still true.
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