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Paying the Penalty

1882andallthat

Well-Known Member
Feb 2, 2009
2,821
4,157
Whilst we have every reason to be cheerful and extremely satisfied with our exciting brand of football and our never say die attitude that has reaped rewards, and we do have lots of reasons to be optimistic I do have one nagging worry that just doesn't seem to be going away.

Its the subject of penalties.

I've said it before, but the frequency with which we seem to be missing penalties seems to be increasing at an alarming rate. Im sure Im not just imagining it, and its a fairly recent phenomenon, I'd say over the last three seasons or so. This season seems has done nothing to quell those doubts, if anything our success rate on this front must be at an all time low in terms of taken and missed ratios.

We also seem to have tried rotating different penalty takers, Defoe, Pav, Bale VDV etc yet all have missed at least one. We have been very fortunate that none have cost us dear, but surely the law of averages will mean that it may eventually come back to bite us on the arse in a shootout, or in an important league game or tie thats the difference between a win/draw/defeat i.e. costly dropped points or being knocked out of a competition.

Of all the players in recent times who have taken them VDV appears to be the only one whose technique gives me the confidence to think he is probably going to score, in that he seems to buy that extra fraction of a second to see where the keeper is going, but even he came unstuck against FC Twente (although I do concede that the keepers behavior on that occasion should have meant that spot kick was re-taken).

Am I being unduly picky or are we right to be concerned ? Some may say we are missing more because our brand of attacking free flowing football means we are being awarded more as we spend more time in the oppositions area, but Im sure our conversion ratio has gone down,and its no coincidence that we don't appear to be settled on a 1st choice automatic for penalty taking duties.
 

PhilosoSPUR

Well-Known Member
Jul 21, 2009
932
596
It's a problem and I hope they're working on it. At this point, from the squad, I trust vdV, Kranjar, Keane and sometimes Pav. But they aren't always on the pitch.
 

mawspurs

Staff
Jun 29, 2003
35,066
17,738
From 12 yards we should be scoring more of these. I'm not sure the rotating helps either, although to some degree it is forced by the players who are on the pitch at the time.

Defoe certainly needs to perfect his pen technique because he has missed more than most. Others have missed a single pen and the responsibility seems to get moved on to the next guy.

But this needs to be sorted before we come to a penalty shoot out in one of the cup competitions.
 

tttcowan

Well-Known Member
Aug 12, 2005
2,792
3,295
I love the fact that currently our biggest problem is finding someone to take penalties... How far we've come!:grin:
 

TutanKlinsmann

Active Member
Sep 25, 2006
518
163
It's nothing new mate. Keane has a share of the guilt as well. It's been a problem for seasons now. i only trust Pav and VdV for pens.
 

FITZ

Well-Known Member
May 17, 2004
2,017
1,518
Hudd missed one. Probably the only one he's taken.
 

spanishspur

Well-Known Member
Jan 27, 2005
434
962
The Hudd miss was one of the worst taken penalties I have seen, although on target.
Crouch is supposed to be able to take a good penalty.
It worries me that nothing seems to be changing, are we doing any practice ? Its like a golfer practicing his putts, they all practice for hours on end, and not many miss from 2 or 3 feet. As the great golfer Gary Player said, the more I practice the luckier I get.
 

Leigh

Professional Lover
Aug 3, 2004
724
97
I remember Crouchy taking a nice penalty for us and I don't recall him ever missing one.
 

wakefieldyid

SC Supporter
Jun 13, 2006
1,560
1,591
The point is that we're bound to get more penalties now that we've realised that you just have to aim a free kick at the head of the biggest nancy boy in the wall!
 

le_magnifique

New Member
Nov 3, 2004
266
0
The biggest worry for me is that Pav decided he didn't want the one against Bremen. Did anyone see Harry say afterwards that Pav's our take when he's playing and that he (Harry) had no idea why Pav had apparently refused to take it.

Fair play to Bale for stepping up, though apparently he's missed a few playing for Wales.

When playing, VDV has to be first IMO.
 

JimmyG2

SC Supporter
Dec 7, 2006
15,014
20,779
The biggest worry for me is that Pav decided he didn't want the one against Bremen. Did anyone see Harry say afterwards that Pav's our take when he's playing and that he (Harry) had no idea why Pav had apparently refused to take it.

Fair play to Bale for stepping up, though apparently he's missed a few playing for Wales.

When playing, VDV has to be first IMO.
Yes Harry did say that Pavlyuchenko was the designated taker.
As we won it didn't matter but I'm sure that Harry noted it in his little black book.

There's both technique and 'bottle' involved here. Defoe scored an important one against Chelsea last season but other than that has been terrible, even so he's always up for it.

I assume that in training they establish a list of willing takers and the top man takes it if he's on the pitch. I assume.

Not another outbreak of lack of 'mental strength' I hope.

I'm sure that it's what statisticians call an 'insignificant cluster' and that sometime soon we will go on a run of scoring them in style.
 
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