Jack Grealish has hit back at Roy Keane after being criticised by the pundit for not taking a penalty in England’s Euro 2020 final defeat by Italy.
Keane questioned why senior players, including Grealish and Raheem Sterling, weren’t taking a penalty in the shootout for England after Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and 19-year-old Bukayo Saka missed from the spot.
And Grealish responded on Twitter on Monday morning, saying: ‘I said I wanted to take one!!!! 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…’
Television footage before the shootout began also showed Grealish nodding in reply to Gareth Southgate when it appeared that the England boss was asking players in a huddle who would be willing to take a penalty. Kalvin Phillips was also seen putting his hand up, but did not end up taking a penalty in the shootout.
Keane offered his sympathy for Saka, who missed the decisive spot-kick, and questioned why other England players didn’t step up.
‘If you’re Grealish or Sterling, you can’t have a young kid step up in front of you,’ the former Republic of Ireland and Manchester United captain told ITV.
‘You can’t sit there and say “I see a 19-year-old kid walk in front of me, when I’ve played a lot more games, a lot more experience…” and Sterling, who has won trophies.
‘I’m not saying he wasn’t prepared, he might have been (penalty taker) six or seven, (but) you can’t sit there. It must be hard to take. You’ve got to get in front of this kid and say “listen, I’m gonna step up in front of you”.’
Grealish, 25, was one of boss Gareth Southgate’s go-to players from the bench throughout the tournament and started only one match – the 1-0 win against Czech Republic in the group stage.
Gary Neville added that he too expected Sterling or Grealish to take a penalty before Saka.
‘When we saw Saka walk up we probably expected to see Grealish or Sterling go up first before him,’ Neville said.
‘But they would have looked at who’s missed, when, who’s taken one. Grealish hasn’t taken one in two seasons. So obviously there’s something wrong there with his penalty taking. And Gareth will have looked at that and brought (on as substitutes) the boys most likely to score, in his mind.
‘They would have worked out over the last few weeks in camp, done sessions on it, looked at who’s scoring the most and got the best record. It would be scientific, it would be data led.
‘Marcus does everything right apart from the important thing. That one (Sancho’s) you’d argue is a poorer pen. They’re always getting saved when the goalkeeper goes that way. This one (Saka’s) as well really. He’s such a great goalkeeper and when he goes that side he’s got a great chance of saving it, he’s so big.’
Keane disagreed with his former United team-mate Neville, saying: ‘I’m intrigued about when they say people would have planned for this with sport science, data… you can’t replicate this.
‘You can’t replicate walking up in a huge final in front of your supporters with a huge goalkeeper in front of you. As Mike Tyson once said: “everyone’s got a plan until they’re punched in the face.” You’re facing a giant of a goalkeeper. Make the keeper save it, hit the target, but you can’t replicate this, Gary. For all their plans it didn’t work.’
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