WHAT the devil has been happening to even the world's best footballers when it comes to penalties?

We all love a shootout – except when England are involved as they will invariably lose – but the standard of some of the 12-yarders in Euro 2016 has been shocking.

And I reckon the problem stems from those few yards leading up to the penalty spot. The run-up to the ball has become little more than a stare-down between taker and keeper, with the first to flinch almost sure to come off second best.

It is almost as if these players are embroiled in a private contest to put on the most outlandish run-up they can. Perpetual motion this is not, it is more like channelling the spirit of whoever is this year's token duffer on Strictly Come Dancing, which cannot be conducive to lethal conversions.

Italy's Simone Zaza was apparently brought on as a late sub against Germany with spot-kicks in mind. Was he some kind of specialist or would Giorgio Chiellini somehow have been even worse from 12 yards?

I grant you he may have felt some relief not to have that responsibility, but he must surely have been thinking something more profane than Mama Mia to have been given the shepherd's crook and watch his replacement complete a double quick-time paso doble then blast the ball into Row Z with his only kick of the evening.

Zaza's ludicrous mixture of Riverdance and Monty Python's Ministry of Silly Walks attracted internet viral compilers like moths to a flame, and the speed at which their videos hit social media was a damn sight faster than it took him to jig up to the ball.

But why has this practice of starting, stopping, restarting and throwing in a feint become commonplace?

Even the Germans, for so long impervious to the pressure of the penalty, have shown signs of weakness this year. The steely-nerved reigning world champions are the game's greatest penalty-taking nation, and though Joachim Low's men eventually dispatched Italy, even they are falling victim to the stilted guessing game that only offers an advantage to the goalkeepers.

Whatever happened to the idea that you simply decide where you want to put the ball and do not change your mind? Providing the taker gets his penalty on target there is a 50 per cent chance the goalkeeper will guess wrongly anyway. These interrupted spurts in which they take their eye off the ball in order to guess what their opponent is thinking, serve only to cast doubt in the taker's mind, which is the last thing they need at such moments.

A shootout is one of the few moments in a team sport in which individuals face such intense scrutiny and pressure with no one to share the burden. I have no official (or unofficial) coaching qualifications but my advice to the Zazas of this world is to be more fox-in-the-box than cat-on-a-hot-tin-roof.

Your nation will thank you for it.