Our Approach to Penalties

[Barry the bird boggler]

Anyone got some general stats on penalties, e.g what is the average score rate and what is our success rate in comparison. Personally I'd guess that the average is something like 75-80% success and we are a bit below that, say 60-65%.....

[facaldaqui]

Anyone got some general stats on penalties, e.g what is the average score rate and what is our success rate in comparison. Personally I'd guess that the average is something like 75-80% success and we are a bit below that, say 60-65%.....

There's not a snowball's chance of finding anyone with stats on that.

[Franchise FC]

Spoke to Matt Le Tissier some years ago.

He said that he didn't care what goalkeepers knew about how he took them - he knew he was going to score.

[RoyalBlue]

I've taken a few in my time and not missed. Never worried about what the keeper was doing, just decided where to put it, NEVER CHANGED MY MIND, and tried to give away as little as possible in the run up.

Not changing your mind is really important IMHO, just take a few steps and bury it. If the keeper goes the right way and goes early then, well, there's not a lot you can do about that.

I think what you say about not changing your mind is pretty key and I've heard quite a few good penalty takers say that.

Penalty taking can become quite a psychological battle with the keeper and I've always encouraged my kids (both pretty good keepers, though I say it myself!) to try to exploit that to the full. That includes all the usual old tricks of delaying, distraction, talking etc. Two other tactics also appear to be quite successful. One is getting the taker to favour one side of the goal by slightly off centre positioning. The other, even more successful, is to get the taker to change his mind part way through e.g. feinting to go one way and then committing to the other (in other words the mirror of The Sig technique). By subjective observation only I would say that the moment a taker gets caught in two minds which way to send the kick or changes his mind, the chances of a save/miss increase dramatically.

Oh, and the other thing that helps increase the odds in the keeper's favour is if he has already made a couple of decent saves in open play.

Hit them hard and high. That is the only way to take a penalty. We haven't had a ruthless penalty taker since the days of Trevor Morley who was excellent at taking them.

Dave Kitson

I thought Caskey had a pretty good conversion rate - although there was a section of Reading fans who always argued that his goals from dead ball situations shouldn't count!

[facaldaqui]

Last night's penalty was another horror show. I think that's three penalties we've missed out of the last four. The normal miss rate should be about one in four. Long not only talks a bad penalty but he takes a bad one. He claims he practises but there was no sign of it. With a non-goalkeeper in front of you, you might at least hit the target.

Anyway, is Long our penalty taker? I thought Sigurdsson was. Or are we still using the "whoever grabs it" approach? I wish Brian would sort this out. OK, last night's miss wasn't vital, but a scored penalty could be the difference between going down and staying up. We are supposed to be so hot on set pieces, but a penalty is a set piece too.

[Ian Royal]

Last night's penalty was another horror show. I think that's three penalties we've missed out of the last four. The normal miss rate should be about one in four. Long not only talks a bad penalty but he takes a bad one. He claims he practises but there was no sign of it. With a non-goalkeeper in front of you, you might at least hit the target.

Anyway, is Long our penalty taker? I thought Sigurdsson was. Or are we still using the "whoever grabs it" approach? I wish Brian would sort this out. OK, last night's miss wasn't vital, but a scored penalty could be the difference between going down and staying up. We are supposed to be so hot on set pieces, but a penalty is a set piece too.

I thought we used the pick someone. and it's there's until they miss method. Of course, you then get several different people missing in a row, where the same person might miss one and then go on to hit the next 3.

[facaldaqui]

So now Sigurdsson, Howard, and Long (after one success) have missed, who next? Or do we go back round again?

[Forbury Lion]

"I've practised a lot in training with [Royals keeper] Adam Federici. He tells me which way he thinks I'm going to go.

"The straight run-up puts the keeper off and I sent him the wrong way as you saw. Practice makes perfect."[/i]

Maybe this only works on our goalkeeper.... which could be a problem if opposition strikers happened to read that!

[facaldaqui]

A straight run up is bound to lead to problems, because it makes it harder to angle the ball.

[Ian Royal]

So now Sigurdsson, Howard, and Long (after one success) have missed, who next? Or do we go back round again?

Probably. Although I'd fancy Church or Rasiak to have a decent go at sticking one in.

[Millsy]

Part of the problem is our squad has chopped and changed so much over the last couple of seasons it's difficult to be sure of anyone doing anything.

The other thing you have to bear in mind is penalties are being saved more nowdays as keepers are bigger and better trained.

I don't see the argument you make fac, because on the one hand you say the opposition will know how certain players take penalties but on the other you're suggesting that we don't chop and change as much and just let a couple do it. A big plus of changing it around (other than people feeling up to the job) is that it makes it very hard for the opposition to have any player-specific preparation so it's a good idea.

Really I think it just boils down to us having so many problems all over the pitch in the past couple of seasons that penalty practice (for everyone) is not a priority and we need to practise more.

I do agree it's irritating to see penalties saved/failed.

[facaldaqui]

Part of the problem is our squad has chopped and changed so much over the last couple of seasons it's difficult to be sure of anyone doing anything.

The other thing you have to bear in mind is penalties are being saved more nowdays as keepers are bigger and better trained.

I don't see the argument you make fac, because on the one hand you say the opposition will know how certain players take penalties but on the other you're suggesting that we don't chop and change as much and just let a couple do it. A big plus of changing it around (other than people feeling up to the job) is that it makes it very hard for the opposition to have any player-specific preparation so it's a good idea.

Really I think it just boils down to us having so many problems all over the pitch in the past couple of seasons that penalty practice (for everyone) is not a priority and we need to practise more.

I do agree it's irritating to see penalties saved/failed.

Changing it around among successful takers might indeed be a clever move. But changing it around because no one can score them does not smack to me of clever variation.

As for keepers being more likely to save them because they are better trained these days, I see your point (though I wish our own keepers would have joined this trend), but that hardly applies to Long's miss last night

[Ian Royal]

Penalties are all about confidence, composure and to a lesser extent technique.

How many players have we had over the last three years who you could say were confident and composed about their ability to score and had good shooting technique?

That doesn't really describe any of them. Doyle had such up and down form you couldn't say him. SHunt lacked a little in composure and technique. Same for Long.

[facaldaqui]

Penalties are all about confidence, composure and to a lesser extent technique.

How many players have we had over the last three years who you could say were confident and composed about their ability to score and had good shooting technique?

That doesn't really describe any of them. Doyle had such up and down form you couldn't say him. SHunt lacked a little in composure and technique. Same for Long.

Which is why I think it's about time we trained our penalty takers rather than hoping for the best.

[Ian Royal]

How do you train confidence and composure at the penalty spot? It's a mental thing more than anything and relies on the right player IMO.

[facaldaqui]

How do you train confidence and composure at the penalty spot? It's a mental thing more than anything and relies on the right player IMO.

Hire someone like Francis Lee to coach them for a couple of sessions and teach them to aim hard into the top corners. It's an acquired skill, and some regular pen takers do that every time. If you can do that, it doesn't matter if the goalie goes the right way.

That might be idealistic, but at least train Long to stick to one way of taking a penalty; train Gylfi not to slow his momentum so much with his jink; and train Howard not to telegraph the direction of his shot with his body language. Yes, it's a mental thing; but it's also a highly technical skill.

[peterroyal76]

Any penalty that goes in is a good penalty. You might scuff your shot and the keeper might get two hands to it, but if it goes in the taker has the result he needs. he could strike the ball as well as he's struck before, but if he hits the post or the keeper goes early enough he can save it. I saw an interview with Gary Alexander who said he didn't have a specific penalty that he prefered, he said he practised all the time using different techniques. The one he used at any said penalty was the one just an inkling. I used to be a goal keeper 11 aside and 5 aside, I used to take penalties for my 5 aside team (yes I know its ONLY 5 aside!), but I never missed one and I always hit hard into the same place (keepers bottom left hand side). I even got 21 in a season at the slough Powerleague!The only one I missed had to be retaken becaus ethe keeper moved early, when I retook it I put in the same place and i scored it! I only saved a couple that season and after playing twelve years eleven aside I only saved two.
I believe you should just pick your spot and smash it!

[URZZZZZZZZ]

Penalties are all about confidence, composure and to a lesser extent technique.

How many players have we had over the last three years who you could say were confident and composed about their ability to score and had good shooting technique?

That doesn't really describe any of them. Doyle had such up and down form you couldn't say him. SHunt lacked a little in composure and technique. Same for Long.

Only player I was ever truly confident taking them was Kitson. I can only remember him missing one at Sheff Utd.

[RoyalBlue]

So now Sigurdsson, Howard, and Long (after one success) have missed, who next? Or do we go back round again?

Let AUS take them. I think keepers can prove to be quite good at taking penalties and Feds also used to play outfield.

Mind you, could be problematic if he hits it straight into the keeper's hands and he kicks straight downfield!

[RoyalBlue]

Penalties are all about confidence, composure and to a lesser extent technique.

How many players have we had over the last three years who you could say were confident and composed about their ability to score and had good shooting technique?

That doesn't really describe any of them. Doyle had such up and down form you couldn't say him. SHunt lacked a little in composure and technique. Same for Long.

Only player I was ever truly confident taking them was Kitson. I can only remember him missing one at Sheff Utd.

No confidence in Caskey? I was even confident that he would score from freekicks! And that includes the time he came straight off the bench to bury one v Bournemouth!!

How do you train confidence and composure at the penalty spot? It's a mental thing more than anything and relies on the right player IMO.

Hire someone like Francis Lee to coach them for a couple of sessions and teach them to aim hard into the top corners. It's an acquired skill, and some regular pen takers do that every time. If you can do that, it doesn't matter if the goalie goes the right way.

That might be idealistic, but at least train Long to stick to one way of taking a penalty; train Gylfi not to slow his momentum so much with his jink; and train Howard not to telegraph the direction of his shot with his body language. Yes, it's a mental thing; but it's also a highly technical skill.

Go for the top corner and you leave yourself two ways to miss! If you go for the bottom corner you can't hit it too low!