Sheffield Wednesday (A) match thread - sponsored by Roy

[Ian Royal]

The problem with the suggestion of staying central is that it totally changes the parametres of penalty taking as it's an evolving arms race and only a halfwit would shoot down the middle if most keepers just stood still, making the action worthless and changing keeper habits as their chances of saving penalties quickly plummet.

[P!ssed Off]

Shots aimed at the center of the goal were successful 87% of the time compared to an 83% success rate for shots placed at the outer thirds of the goal.

No doubt you'll profess that I'm "struggling here", but I when I said "the side" I was referring to a width smaller than a "third of the goal". You'll notice that originally I said "If you can't put it in the corner then give the ball to someone else."

The "outer third of the goal" in the study would include a ball aimed 1.23m to the keeper's left/right and 2.43m from the nearest post.
This is not what I would consider "in the corner".

[Ian Royal]

Shots aimed at the center of the goal were successful 87% of the time compared to an 83% success rate for shots placed at the outer thirds of the goal.

No doubt you'll profess that I'm "struggling here", but I when I said "the side" I was referring to a width smaller than a "third of the goal". You'll notice that originally I said "If you can't put it in the corner then give the ball to someone else."

The "outer third of the goal" in the study would include a ball aimed 1.23m to the keeper's left/right and 2.43m from the nearest post.
This is not what I would consider "in the corner".

It's a little bit rich to argue on the basis "that's not what you said", when I specifically addressed in my original post and reiterated later that I agree right in the corner is one of the best places to shoot, but that that's not where the majority of penalties actually end up and specified a zone where they're most often saved.

If what you're saying is that 'if you're not good enough to put the ball right in the corner every time you shouldn't be taking penalties' then congratulations, most teams now have no one to take penalties because only a tiny tiny proportion of players, if any, can do it reliably every time.

The point I was making is that centre is actually more reliable than either side when you take into account reality and that most penalty takers can't reliable put the ball within a 12 inch wide zone most times. Now please feel free to argue that penalty takers aught to practice to be able to do that and it's an achievable goal. I thoroughly agree. The fact is though, they don't. Or at least the overwhelming majority don't.