Michael Ballack believes England’s obsession with finding a solution for their penalty shoot-out failures will harm the team’s chances of winning one at the World Cup this summer.
England coach Roy Hodgson has revealed he is going to take a sports psychologist to Brazil to help the players cope with the pressure of spot kicks and will incorporate practice drills into training sessions.
The national team have been knocked out of six of their last 10 major tournaments on penalties but Ballack, who won 98 caps for Germany, believes England are doing themselves more harm than good.
He said: “Maybe England are training too much. Sometimes you should keep football easy, you can talk too much as well.
“I never practiced, you can’t replicate it in training. It is a totally different situation than in a game.”
