England head coach Fabio Capello knows who his preferred penalty takers are for next summer's World Cup.
England boss has an idea of who can handle pressure
England head coach Fabio Capello knows who his preferred penalty takers are for next summer's World Cup in South Africa.
The dreaded shoot-out has often been the Three Lions' downfall with England crashing out of the 1990, 1998 and 2006 finals on penalties to West Germany, Argentina and Portugal respectively.
Capello claims deciding a game on penalties is often a lottery, although he believes it is important to have the right player in the right frame of mind ready to step up to the spot.
The likes of Frank Lampard, Wayne Rooney, Gareth Barry, James Milner and Jermain Defoe all take spot-kicks for their respective clubs and Capello knows who he wants to take one come South Africa.
Lottery
"Penalties are a lottery," Capello told
ESPN. "I remember some very important players didn't take penalties because they didn't feel sure they would score.
"For this reason, with penalties, when the time comes and you have to choose who should take them, you ask and the players say 'no, please' and that can even be the very best players."
Capello added: "I prefer to choose the players who want to take penalties and I always train with penalties in my mind.
"I know who the best players are to take them, already. I know. But the pressure at the moment you have to take the penalty is different.
"During training, the goal is big and the keeper is small. But when you have to score a penalty to win the World Cup, the goal is little and the keeper is big. It is difficult to score under that pressure."
Rio boost
Meanwhile, Capello has been speaking with Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand and is confident the Red Devils ace will be fit by next month.
A calf injury that has been linked with Ferdinand's back injury has curtailed much of the defender's season, although the defender is hopeful of playing in January.
Capello has been in touch with the 31-year-old stopper and has been given a upbeat bulletin in his recent progress.
"I spoke with Rio last week and he was good. He is very confident he will be able to play after January 15," he continued.
"He told me he is really, really happy because he has no pain and he has started to train."
New ball
The Italian tactician has also confirmed he plans on doing plenty of training with the new World Cup ball ahead of the summer's prestigious tournament.
He believes the main difference between the upcoming tournament and previous ones will be the ball and wants his squad to get fully acquainted with feel and flight of the new design.
"The one thing that has really changed is the ball," he explained. "With this ball it is possible to shoot from long distances and that will be a big problem for the keeper so it will be important for us to train and get used to the World Cup ball.
"That will be really important, not only to learn to play with the ball but also do it at altitude, because the bounce is different and the characteristics of the ball is different.
"You have to understand exactly what happens when you have to play in Pretoria, Johannesburg or Rustenburg where you are at over 1500 metres."
