Toughen up or pay penalty, says Neville

Neville saw his side knocked out of the UEFA Cup by Fiorentina at Goodison Park on Wednesday, just as Tottenham were suffering the same fate at PSV in Eindhoven.

Scroll down to read more

"Maybe we just need to be a bit more mentally tough," said Neville. "I don't know what it is.

"I know I don't enjoy penalties and wouldn't give anyone advice on taking them, but it's something we need to get better at. It comes at the end of 120 minutes and I think we have the mentality that: 'Oh, we couldn't have done any more.'

"But then we still have the penalties to take. That's where we have to toughen up.

"The bottom line is we've lost another shoot-out, an English club has lost another, and that's something we definitely need to improve on. 'It's not just once or twice, it happens a lot."

Neville made it clear that he was not being critical of individuals, especially given that he has not always been that keen to take one himself.

But he points out a deficiency that continues to stalk the English game.

England, for example, have the worst record of the 21 national teams that have taken part in four or more penalty shoot-outs in main competitions such as the World Cup or the European Championship.

They have won only one in six attempts — against Spain in Euro 96 — and that puts their percentage success rate below the likes of Iran, Tunisia, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

From the club point of view, the record is a little better.

English clubs have been involved in 21 shoot-outs in Europe since 1967 and have won nine and lost 12.

Neville added: "We practised penalties beforehand, well I didn't, and I don't think the boss looked at me with that much confidence!

"They were going in when we practised them in training. You can score penalties in training. But you can't recreate the real thing."

Everton could have knocked out the Italian side in normal time on Wednesday as they came from two down after the first leg to level the tie, but they were unable to grab the third goal.

The sense of disappointment was overwhelming but Neville believes it will soon be forgotten if his team can qualify for next season's Champions League.

"Now we have to make sure that in the next nine games we get the reward we deserve from a fantastic season," he said.