England have worked out why they have such a poor record in penalty shoot-outs - they take their spot-kicks too quickly.

Ahead of this summer’s World Cup in Russia, the Football Association is looking at ways to do improve England’s dismal record.

They include encouraging players to take part in indoor golf-putting competitions during their stays at hotels and to heckle each other to see how they react under pressure. Another is to copy the style of Cristiano Ronaldo by taking their time before striking the ball.

“We’ve got a research team on it to come back with some interesting findings,” FA technical director Dan Ashworth said.

“How are we going to get over that? Because if you’re going to win a World Cup, statistics will tell you that you’ll have to get through one round on penalties. And they had some quite inventive ways of how they dealt with that.”