Roy Keane hit out at senior players such as Jack Grealish and Raheem Sterling for allowing Bukayo Saka to take the decisive penalty during England's shoot-out defeat to Italy in the Euro 2020 final.
After Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho had previously missed from the spot - as well as Italy's Andrea Belotti and the usually ice cool Jorginho in an intense atmosphere - it was down to the 19-year-old Arsenal starlet to keep the Three Lions in the contest, but his effort was saved by Gianluigi Donnarumma.
Saka had never taken a penalty for his club side and the pressure arguably proved too much as England suffered more Wembley heartbreak on similar levels to that of Euro 1996, when Gareth Southgate missed the crucial kick.
It was England's seventh defeat on penalties since 1990 and second to Italy, who also beat them in the Euro 2012 quarter-finals.
Working as a pundit for ITV, Keane couldn't believe Sterling and Grealish could possibly allow a player so inexperienced to go up in front of them in that situation. However, although Sterling had scored in a shoot-out to win Man City a League Cup final against Chelsea, he had missed his last three penalties at club level while Grealish missed his last for Aston Villa two seasons ago.
"They'll have worked all of this out over the last few weeks in camp - they'll have done sessions on it... it will have been scientific and data-led."
— ITV Football (@itvfootball) July 11, 2021
🗣 @GNev2, @IanWright0 and Roy Keane reflect on @England's penalty shootout defeat to Italy#ITAENG | #ITVFootball | #Euro2020 pic.twitter.com/rC1hFXh8Vm
Keane said: "If you're (Raheem) Sterling or (Jack) Grealish, you cannot sit there and have a young kid [Saka] go up for a penalty ahead of you, you can't. You cannot let a shy 19-year-old go up in front of you. They have a lot more experience, Sterling has won trophies, they had to get in front of the young kid and stand up.
"You have to volunteer. You can't just sit there, you've got to get in front of that young kid in front of you with all your experience and say 'listen, I'll step up before you.'
"You can't replicate for a night like this, and for all their plans it didn't work."
Grealish, who was one of the players the pundits were critical of, tweeted this morning that he put himself forward to take one of England's penalties, with it being Gareth Southgate who had the final call.
I said I wanted to take one!!!!
— Jack Grealish (@JackGrealish) July 12, 2021
The gaffer has made so many right decisions through this tournament and he did tonight! But I won’t have people say that I didn’t want to take a peno when I said I will… https://t.co/3mBpKyMoUV
Gary Neville said: "We did expect Grealish or Sterling to step up first but they would have done their stats and Gareth would have put the lads forward who he thought had the best chance of scoring.
Ian Wright said: "It also comes down to who wants it. Rashford and Sancho came on when they did knowing they would be taking a penalty. Some players just don't want to do it. And the players who do, you just hope they can score. The pressure must have been more than I can imagine. Even Rashford sent the giant keeper the wrong way but tried too hard to get it into the corner and missed."
Southgate, meanwhile, insisted the decisions on who would take the penalties was all down to him and shouldered the blame for their defeat, which came after a 1-1 draw.
The England boss said: "I chose the penalty takers based on what we've done in training and nobody is on their own. We've won together as a team and it's absolutely on all of us in terms of not being able to win the game tonight.
"But in terms of the penalties, that's my call and totally rests with me."
