Tuesday 19 June 2018 18:10, UK
Matt Le Tissier says England should adopt a more positive mindset when taking penalties should they face a shootout in the knockout stages of the World Cup.
England have lost three out of three World Cup shootouts (to Germany, Argentina and Portugal), but beat Spain 4-2 at Euro 1996.
Le Tissier, who scored 161 goals for Southampton, says he feels the England players need to get "excited" about taking penalties to forget about any negativity.
Speaking to Sky Sports News, he said: "I think the biggest key point to taking a penalty is you have to want to be there in the first place.
"When the penalty was awarded, I got excited. I thought brilliant it is a chance to score a goal and that is the best mindset you have got to have going into it.
"It is the easiest chance you are going to get to score a goal - my mindset was I have a real chance to be the hero of the game here.
"If you are in a penalty shootout that is the kind of mentality you have to go in with and you have got to try to eradicate all negative thoughts out of your mind.
"One of the things I used mentally was I used to envisage the ball hitting the back of the net and the stadium erupting before I had taken the penalty.
"To get that real positive image in your mind as you are stepping up to take the penalty."
England players did not practise penalty taking during Sven-Goran Eriksson's reign between 2001-2006 and Le Tissier does not agree with this stance.
"I think it would almost be a derelict of your duty if you don't practise them. I have heard a lot of people say you cannot replicate the pressure of the situation," the 49-year-old said.
"That's fine but why do you then do training during the week? In training for a normal game on Saturday you cannot replicate a full stadium.
"People still do it - you do your training to get yourself ready for these situations so I am a big advocate of practising and practising a lot.
"It's something you can get better at by practising so why wouldn't you do it?"
England started their World Cup campaign with a 2-1 win over Tunisia on Monday and take on Panama on Sunday in Group G.
