Hodgson may use psychologist so England do not pay World Cup penalty

Roy Hodgson is ready to turn to a psychologist to ensure England avoid the heartbreak of another penalty shootout defeat at this summer’s World Cup finals.
The nation have won only one shootout since 1990‚ against Spain in the quarter-finals of Euro 96‚ and have exited six major tournaments on penalties in that time. Hodgson’s England lost on spot-kicks to quarter-final opponents Italy at Euro 2012 and the manager told Sky Sports’ Footballers’ Football Show he is determined to give his players the best chance of succeeding where their recent forbears have failed.
He said: “I’m not averse to using a psychologist. We are considering the possibility of inviting someone with us but I think it’s very important they’re someone who is part of the group. I’m not sure just suddenly shipping someone in to give the players a lecture would work.
“I think there’s another possibility, we should be encouraging players to know their penalty, to practise that penalty. When you practise penalties within your group the goalkeeper knows the players, so maybe we won’t do it with a goalkeeper.
“Maybe we’ll have target area No1 and target area No2 and we’ll insist the player hits those targets. There are a lot of things that can be done but the bottom line is always going to be there’ll be players who are less confident than others.
“It’s a matter of how we assure ourselves that when those players go up they are as well prepared as they can be. In the final analysis it will be their character, their confidence and their ability to block out tomorrow morning’s headlines.”
He added: “Some players are good at that, other players find it harder. If a psychologist can find a way of getting a player to block that out we’ll be very, very happy.”
Hodgson also revealed he will inform the unlucky seven players who will not be in his final 23-man party for Brazil when he names the initial 30-man squad for warm-weather training in Portugal in May.
“What we did for Euro 2012, we named the 23, and we named standby players. In fact, that worked to the point that some of the players we named on standby called me up and said ‘look, if you’re not going to put me in the 22, I don’t want to be one of your standby players’, which I must admit at the time, was quite a huge disappointment.
“I still entertained that somewhat naive and old-fashioned notion that playing for your country is a tremendous honour and to be one of 30 or to be one of 40 or one of 50, is not such a bad thing.
“We will definitely take 30 players with us when we go to Portugal and probably keep those players until such time we play the final friendly against Peru. They will be with us. We’re taking 30 players with us. It’s just that the seven will know that, in my thinking, they aren’t actually in the squad and they’ve got to go there as, if you like to call them, a standby player. It will make certain that if anything did happen, these players would be fit when they’re called back in again.”
England’s footballers are to seek inspiration from the man who has masterminded British cycling’s impressive rise to prominence over the last two decades after Hodgson invited Sir Dave Brailsford to speak to his squad. Cycling’s performance director will speak to the players, most likely at St George’s Park, before the Wembley send-off friendly against Peru on 30 May.