The art of taking penalties

[monty]

When Royston was taking them, it was like money in the bank, only ever seen him missing once, and that was after a lay off with injury.

Spot on!, pun intended

RV kept scoring because he put the ball hard and low either side of the keeper, the guy was a genius, esecially after having a smoke, he'd docker one coming on for a warm up or at half time then light up again before the tunnel.

 

[Blue Sky]

Just repeating a well known fact about Thierry Henry , he would not take a pen if he had been fouled , good bit a self physiology , you can't feel guilty about scoring if you'd dived

 

[dannyboy]

Rooney strikes the ball really well but he doesn't pay any attention to the keeper's movement. The best penalty takers have got to be able to react to what the keeper is doing. He has admitted himself he picks a side and that is that.

 

[degsy]

In kids football and up to junior hitting a pen like Rooney's , hard , into the corner you are going to score , if left footed go the other side . The moment you open up your body and try to side foot it the other side things start going wrong .
Moving up to top class footie when goalies are good and have studied the takers then I would recommended one type and its German style , hard and high to either side , goalies do not dive into top corners , one danger , hitting it over the bar.

1) pick a corner - stick to it.
2) keepers can dive but they can't fly; so 6 to 7ft high...gives you a plus or minus margin of error. Your margin of error side to side is less, inside and the keeper is likely to get a hand to it, too far the other way and it's out.
3) practice obvs.

There was a study, done, iirc, by some rs who got a grant for it somehow. He surveyed a ridiculous amount of pennos, thousands.
The study revealed that looking at the placement/direction the none kicking foot indicated 90+% the direction of ball placement.
eg; and it was correct fot left or right footed takers...say a right footed player's left/none kicking foot pointed straightat or to the keepers right, the ball was going into the keepers RH corner
Just sayin like.

 

[The Speke Spectre]

I normally rabona them into one of the top corners just kissing the underside of the bar. Most of the time the keeper doesn't move and instead watches it go in and sportingly claps me.

 

[havrey0123]

In kids football and up to junior hitting a pen like Rooney's , hard , into the corner you are going to score , if left footed go the other side . The moment you open up your body and try to side foot it the other side things start going wrong .
Moving up to top class footie when goalies are good and have studied the takers then I would recommended one type and its German style , hard and high to either side , goalies do not dive into top corners , one danger , hitting it over the bar.

Most of the best penalty takers hit it hard into the low corner. If you hit it hard enough even if the keeper goes the right way he can't save it.
Even the greats like zidane Messi etc can't take penalties hitting them into the top corner as it's too hard to get pace on the ball.

 

[Little Ralphy]

it all depends on the keeper.

In kids footy, keepers wont really dive, so you just kick it hard to the side of him.

Similarly if you're against a rather rotund keeper, then you can probably just aim for the corner and hit it hard and he knows he's never getting down to it.

If you're up against a very agile keeper, and it's obvious he fancies himself to get to your shot regardless of where you hit it, you need to be more clever. You can either disguise your movement in your run up or shape of your foot, to make it seems like it's going one side and then change to the other. I remember the old Roy of the Rovers comic when I was a kid, it had football tips every week and one week it had Marco Van Basten's penalty tips. He said if you open up your body and make it look like you'll side foot it towards the side of whichever leg you're kicking with, then most keepers who study the shape of your body in deciding where to dive, will go with that if you sell it well enough, then you just close your foot as you strike the ball and put it in the other side.

You can do the same by making it look like you're going to smash it in the bottom corner but then change the foot shape at the end so it instead goes straight down the middle with some height (to avoid any trailing legs).

The difficulty for professional footballers is that pretty much every penalty they've ever taken is on video for someone to study, so they can't just adopt one technique and stick with it as a good keeper will know how to save it. Hence why personally I think it's better to adapt to the keeper you're up against.

 

[royalblue66]

Royston would sometimes tell the GK where it was going, and still score, hard and low just inside the post, and the ref's seemed far more stricter if the GK moved too early in them days.

 

[mawders]

Blue sky thinking right there mate.



Shearer was not as good as I remember, although he scored the most pens of anyone: (these are just PL stats)

View attachment 44799
Le Tiss was the man tho:

View attachment 44800

those stats are wrong. Shearer only missed 2. Against us and Utd

 

[The binman chronicles]

those stats are wrong. Shearer only missed 2. Against us and Utd

Don't suppose you considered where you got your stats from are wrong mate?

To be honest I can find several sites that say 11 missed (including the premier league official website) but only one that says 2. And that doesn't include the one he mentions here:

https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/alan-shearer-waited-six-years-6220831

To be honest we all pick up stats from somewhere, and some are right and some are wrong unless we ask the man himself it is hard to get a definitive answer. (And that's only if he bothered to keep a track of them)

I would have thought he would have set them straight though seeing he is the joint record holder of pen misses along with Wayne.

 

[Caolam]

I remember playing in a tournament organised as part of a festival in the village I lived in. The businesses put together 7 a-side teams with each team allowed a recognised footballer, I was asked to play for one of the teams. Not a great team but we managed to get to the final a scrape a draw which meant a penalty shoot out. As the minutes in the game ticked by I realised we were going to penalty shoot which gave me time to work out what I was going to do. As soon as the whistle went I said to the manager that I would hit the first one.
I scored and we went on to win, 3-2. I was picked as player of the tournament and one of the reasons given was that I led by example and demanded to take the first penalty.
Afterwards, in the bar, I told the manager that I had taken the first one because, if I missed, I was sure someone else would miss after me and it would have been their fault we lost not mine.

 

[Roger Milla]

Back when i was in college, i beat a semi pro football in a penalty competition in 5 a side goals. I used to love Giuseppe Signori's technique so I adopted that. No run up, just one step and bang! Gives the keeper less time to react.

 

[The binman chronicles]

Don't think I ever missed a penalty, even when they stuck two goalkeepers in to see if they could stop it. I hit it hard and in to the top corner.

I reckon my success came from the fact that I could never hit it too hard that it would make it fly over the bar from 12 yards. So the natural trajectory made it almost always go in the same place. I was crap at goalkicks though because of this. The lord giveth and the lord taketh away...

 

[Steve0]

Should be more penalties to the goalies left as most people find it easier to go to their dominant side.

 

[Chozz]

Le Tissier reckons the best option is side foot curl to the same side as your foot (if right footed then into the right / keepers left etc). His logic was that the arc or trajectory of the ball is away or further from the keepers reach. If you hit it like Rooney, right footed to the keepers right, the ball is technically curling closer to him.

I agree with what Cruyff said in relation to penalties...go for placement and accuracy early in a match but when it comes to later in the game or penalty shoot out then just go for power.

Unsworth and Baines for us were/are two of the best.

Mind you a good penalty is one that goes in...