Penalty Takers

[Plodder]

Small margins can make a difference.  Penalties are one of the few "static" situations one can prepare for, and I have always thought that most professionals could become good penalty takers, the more they practise.  Mitrovic's career record as a penalty taker is poor, 22/31 according to transfermarkt.com, and that excludes his miss in the shoot out v Scotland, although to be fair, I don't know if he has scored any in shoot outs.  He should not be our first choice penalty taker.

Danny Murphy (career record 30/31) has written about it being a mixture of technique, routine and mentality, and has emphasised the importance of the second of these three elements:

"The most important thing with penalty taking is having a routine — a go-to penalty. Something you're very comfortable with that you always do, and you can practise it. You can never recreate the mental pressure that comes with taking a penalty — I've taken them at Manchester United, Arsenal... I've taken them all over. You can never recreate that. But if you have a go-to penalty and a go-to routine, it takes away that pressure instantly."

I think Marco Silva needs to choose four of the first team to drill 15 minutes every day on penalty taking. With more dedicated practice and by developing a grooved routine, we would have a cadre of players who would get to the standard where we could expect 80-90% probability of scoring.  It is just one thing, but a successful season involves the typical accumulation of small improvements in many areas, and this is one where I think we have some control over how we can increase our chances of having a successful season.

[Facts Not Fiction]

He scored last week. He missed this week.

That's football.

[Dodgin]

Don't know if these stats are correct, doesn't include todays miss by Mitro.

https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/aleksandar-mitrovic/elfmetertore/spieler/51152

[Plodder]

He scored last week. He missed this week.

That's football.

A view over the longer term speaks differently. It is not a knee jerk reaction to one missed penalty.  We are not maximising our chances by keeping Mitrovic as our main penalty taker.  It is to his credit that he is willing to take the responsibility, but we need either him or someone to do it better.

[Grassy Noel]

In my assessment Mitro would not have taken the penalty because the conditions required that he be replaced around the 70 minute mark by Muniz who has always made a good showing for us. Seems that Mitro was truly on fire by the time of the last minute dust up.

[toshes mate]

I guess penalties got highlighted as we have had two in two games.  They are random occurences however which means we could have many more or none at all over what remains of the season.   That randomness would surely give a good indication of investment required.  My own view is the psychological one and it's interesting how Danny Murphy puts it into everyday language - if you have a routine then penalty taking is not something special that requires you to leave your comfort zone, but getting into and staying in a comfort zone is probably not good advice for players generally since they are busy making things happen.  And so the routine is in decision making e.g. this penalty is one where I will do what comes most naturally to me.  In other words this is when I do what is tried, tested, and proven to work.

I guess that is something for Mitro to think about if he doesn't already have a tried and tested regime, but I am guessing that he already has one but it is not just as solid as Danny Murphy's was and probably still is.  That is also randomness at work too.   

[Ronnief]

Looking at Mitro's two penalties this season. They were very similar both hard and to the goalies right. The Liverpool goalie just touched the ball but the ball was struck hard and closer to the post. The one against Wolves wasn't struck quite as hard and not as close to the post hence the goalie saved it. I guess both goalies had done their homework on how Mitro takes penalties and dived to their right anticipating where Mitro would shoot. Where will Mitro put his next penalty? Hard and to the goalies left or right, high or low. Is there anyone in the team better at taking them?

[filham]

I thought Mitro's penalty against Liverpool was hard low, in the corner and to the keepers left and was identical to those he had scored pre season. I thought keepers would be aware of his shooting habit and therefore now he needed to go to the keepers right.
I think yesterday he changed his habit and the keeper anticipated this. In changing his habit his technique let him down and he failed to find the corner.
Before Mitro took on the penalty duty we had a bad spell with different spot kick takers, even Cairney failed.

[FFC1987]

Have to agree with this. Mitro has shown a few times now when the margins are tight, he's not the most reliable penalty taker. So, 22 scored and 10 missed. Not sure what the average conversion rate is for a 'successful' penalty taker but a 31% miss rate seems high to me? Never understood a striker who didn't take penalties, but maybe we have others in the squad who would perform better? Only Silva and his team would know. Maybe Mitro is our best option.

[Ludlow Richard]

Bearing in mind how many goals he scores, it's odd that I never have that much confidence in Mitro scoring a penalty. People like Murphy, Helguson, Blake and Berbatov you never thought would miss. Not the same with Mitro. Generally the goalkeepers manage to pick the right way to dive with him, and that was especially noticeable in the Championship last season. Perhaps it's a bit knee-jerk to get someone else on penalty duty just on the basis of one missed penalty; but I just feel keepers have sussed him.

[rebel]

Psychology comes into penalty taking.

Sa researched where Mitro placed last weeks penalty, to the far left.
So he gambled that Mitro knows he knows where he placed the penalty last week,
so he figured to the far right this week. Mitro should have called his bluff,
place it to the far left again. Also the height helped Sa.

[JimOG]

Bearing in mind how many goals he scores, it's odd that I never have that much confidence in Mitro scoring a penalty. People like Murphy, Helguson, Blake and Berbatov you never thought would miss. Not the same with Mitro. Generally the goalkeepers manage to pick the right way to dive with him, and that was especially noticeable in the Championship last season. Perhaps it's a bit knee-jerk to get someone else on penalty duty just on the basis of one missed penalty; but I just feel keepers have sussed him.

Agree totally - growing up watching Fulham left back Jim Langley hardly ever miss (to keeper's right) I always thought it didn't have to be a forward. Blake is a good example. I can't believe that there isn't a penalty taking session every week and that someone in the camp is better. I think Mitro is too easy to read and is not a 'natural' at it like Murphy ...and that's despite putting yesterday's in the opposite corner..too high ..too comfortable

[Jock White]

 :005:Jeez, never mind Mitro's penalty - have you seen Rice's for Wet Spam just now?

[filham]

Psychology comes into penalty taking.

Sa researched where Mitro placed last weeks penalty, to the far left.
So he gambled that Mitro knows he knows where he placed the penalty last week,
so he figured to the far right this week. Mitro should have called his bluff,
place it to the far left again. Also the height helped Sa.

It is a gamble had Mitro gone the same way again and the keeper had guessed corectly, like me you would now be saying time Mitro changed direction.

[rebel]

Psychology comes into penalty taking.

Sa researched where Mitro placed last weeks penalty, to the far left.
So he gambled that Mitro knows he knows where he placed the penalty last week,
so he figured to the far right this week. Mitro should have called his bluff,
place it to the far left again. Also the height helped Sa.

It is a gamble had Mitro gone the same way again and the keeper had guessed corectly, like me you would now be saying time Mitro changed direction.

I think that's what's happened. Just pointing out the psychology angle, you don't know what I would be saying / not saying.   

[blingo]

Nothing else to moan about so let's start on penalties.  Really???

[FFC1987]

Nothing else to moan about so let's start on penalties.  Really???

To be fair, we've had a dodgey past with penalties, particularly in the Prem. We just missed one which could be a huge dropped 2 points in the long run and as mentioned, our current taker has a 30% miss rate so its obviously a topic worthy of discussion.

[WindyCity]

I think it's a bit unrealistic to think teams would go thru the process described by TO to identify proper PK takers.  (Even though, to the dopey football fan, like me, it does make perfect sense.)  I just don't think that's how football teams operate.  As far as FFC is concerned, as long as Mitrovic is on the field, he's taking the PK.  As long as Ronaldo is on the field, he's their 'best' player, he's taking the PK.  It's true, Mitro is not as consistent as he should be, but we have to live with it.  He's gonna miss a few.  It's up to Mitrovic to make himself the best player he can be, and if it means extra time after training day is over to practice this skill, he should be doing it.

[sunburywhite]

What is Muniz record with penalties?

Does he take them?

[Dodgin]

Muniz missed one in penalty shoot out