As England move into the knock-out stages of the World Cup it raises a familiar spectre: penalties.

At least, if that happens, this will be the best-prepared squad ever in terms of practising the routine, with Gareth Southgate saying he has had “a couple of decades to think through” his own failure from the spot in Euro 96. The England manager’s conclusion? It does not come down to chance and players have to “own the process”.

England went out in 1996 on penalties, as they did at the World Cups in 1990, 1998 and 2006, and European Championships in 2004 and 2012. No country has a worse record than them in shoot-outs, which is why the Football Association has undertaken detailed analysis to consider a serial failing which has become systemic. The England men’s team and under-21s, and the women’s team, have won just two of their past 14 shoot-outs.

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As part of the FA’s rigorous attempts to do better in shoot-outs the players underwent psychometric testing to help select who would take the penalties. The tests, which are not unusual in club football or within the FA junior teams, were taken at St George’s Park prior to the squad heading to Russia.

Southgate has taken a strong interest in that work, commissioned by FA technical director Dan Ashworth, with one interesting conclusion being that England players take their kicks quicker than anyone else and need to slow down. It is why, in training, the players are walking slowly from the half-way line.

England also want to avoid a late scramble for volunteers and have a list - from 1 to 23 - of the order in which penalties will be taken, although that depends on not only who is on the pitch but the condition they are in.

Furthermore the FA are using games at the team hotel to try and replicate pressure - one idea used by the England Under-21s was a golf putting competition in which the players are split into teams of five and encouraged to heckle and jeer their opponents.

“We’ve looked at individual processes, individual techniques. Then we’ve looked at collectively how we would want to approach a shoot-out,” Southgate explained. “Making sure that there’s a calmness, that we own the process that it’s not just decisions that are made on the spur of the moment or even behaviours around the team: that it’s calm, the right people are on the pitch and there aren’t too many voices in people’s heads.

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“We’ve finalised that in the lead up to this game as well. I think that’s all you can do. You keep preparing in the right way possible and try and affect the things you can.”

Southgate’s own miss came in England’s semi-final at Wembley against Germany. It has never left him, but has at least become something that he has ‘owned’ and is prepared to speak about.

Southgate stepped up after answering manager Terry Venables’ calls for volunteers following the reluctance of other players, who were more accustomed to taking penalties, to take responsibility. “I was a volunteer really,” he said. “The type of character I was felt you should put yourself forward. It is probably braver not to if you are not confident doing it. We will have a more considered list of who has been finishing in training, what the numbers should be unless they are injured. If we have made changes, we keep updating the list.

“I have had a couple of decades thinking it through. In defence of the staff there at the time, penalty shoot-outs weren’t as regular then. We didn’t have as much information as we do now and FA Cup ties went to two, three replays so we weren’t in those situations as often as we are now.

“Definitely it’s not about luck. It’s not about chance. It’s about performing a skill under pressure. There are individual things you can work on within that. We have studied it. There are things that can be unhelpful in terms of their preparation for players at that moment. As a staff knowing who is in charge of which bits, who needs to get out of the way, who can speak with clarity to the players. There is lots we can do to own the process and not be controlled by it.

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“There are the players that take them regularly and have their own routine and are able to maybe change decision depending on the goalkeeper and others who maybe don’t take them as regularly who need to probably practice one or two stock penalties that they are able to execute at that moment. That’s what we have tried to do, to deduce what group they are in and is there a need for individual technique. Some we shouldn’t be interfering, others we are giving them a process which we believe will help them.”