Haaland’s penalties…be careful what you wish for!

brian the blue said:
So we did!

Pretty telling that the one we scored was behind closed doors in a season where the title had already gone.

We seem to really struggle with pressure penalties.

The Mahrez miss at Anfield is probably the most annoyed I’ve been at all our penalty misses since Pep took over. We’re still feeling the effects of that miss now, with our ongoing terrible record at that ground. I’m sure winning that game back in 2018 would have meant we’d have won more there over the years.
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If anyone else took it he would've missed too except Ederson, I'm certain he would've scored it, should've been our penalty taker all those years.
 
hilts said:
He needs to strike them cleaner
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It'd help yeah, but keepers are throwing themselves to a corner knowing they've a 50-50 chance of guessing right.

He needs to panenka someone. I'm sure it would work and then you might find keepers just delay a tiny bit in future too.
 
dennishasdoneit said:
Does anyone remember Gary Owen and his penalty style?
He scored quite a few for City which I never saw live,but I'm sure he was an accurate push kick penalty taker,like John Robertson at forest,the ball was always low into a corner.
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Always low corner please, like a crisp pass.

And there's a physical reason:

a ball NOT on the ground is closer to the keeper's hands, and saving with his hands is a reflex, which per definition is much much quicker (ask your own nervous system for details...)
than diving to the ground against the inertia of your body mass.

Even from the edge of the box, a crisp pass to low corner is nearly unstoppable.

But as I posted somewhere else, nowadays the taker has to wait for the keeper to move and pass it to the other side. 1eye on the ball, 1eye on the keeper ;)

Some players only watch the keeper, not without risk.

(Apologies if this post sounded too smart, didn't want to teach anybody in any way!)
 
It's all in his stance and run-up.
Haaland is easy to read because he opens up his body too early and the foot shape when he's kicking the ball

Haaland needs to work on his technique and maybe use power instead of placement
I could teach him an easy way to improve, so if you're reading this DM me hahaha
 
St.Pauli support said:
Always low corner please, like a crisp pass.

And there's a physical reason:

a ball NOT on the ground is closer to the keeper's hands, and saving with his hands is a reflex, which per definition is much much quicker (ask your own nervous system for details...)
than diving to the ground against the inertia of your body mass.

Even from the edge of the box, a crisp pass to low corner is nearly unstoppable.

But as I posted somewhere else, nowadays the taker has to wait for the keeper to move and pass it to the other side. 1eye on the ball, 1eye on the keeper ;)

Some players only watch the keeper, not without risk.

(Apologies if this post sounded too smart, didn't want to teach anybody in any way!)
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It does sounds bit smart...but i'll match it.....I've played footy virtually every week since the late 80s
and taken loads of penalties during low level Sunday morning league matches and 5 or 6 a side indoor and outdoor games. I've missed only two that I can remember,the last one back in April of this year..every single goal one was a firm left foot side/ push kick,low into a corner,often shaping to put it one side but changing direction right at the last second,never looked at the keeper,just concentrated on low hard accuracy.
I was never much of a footballer but pens I'm pretty good at ; )
And yes I agree with every word of your post fwiw
 
Nunes took a very impressive pen in a shoot out as I remember, no sign of nerves and great technique. Might be worth a try. Or Nico O'Reilly on the basis he does everything else well and is pretty level headed?
 
Ederson was the man for the job, shame we never let him take them.
 
SilverFox2 said:
A reputation of missing penalties comes in handy when he scores the most goals in the PL.
Unlike his competition who rely on them to boost their total.
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How about scoring them? It’s not the first big game where he missed. It’s like saying Ronaldo should shoot his horrible freekicks because he scored so much - yet everyone in the national team or Madrid/ Juventus wanted Fernandes/ Bale/ Pjanic to shoot them
 
dennishasdoneit said:
It does sounds bit smart...but i'll match it.....I've played footy virtually every week since the late 80s
and taken loads of penalties during low level Sunday morning league matches and 5 or 6 a side indoor and outdoor games. I've missed only two that I can remember,the last one back in April of this year..every single goal one was a firm left foot side/ push kick,low into a corner,often shaping to put it one side but changing direction right at the last second,never looked at the keeper,just concentrated on low hard accuracy.
I was never much of a footballer but pens I'm pretty good at ; )
And yes I agree with every word of your post fwiw
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The one (big) difference, is that each keeper you came up against hadn't seen any/many of your previous penalties.

Every keeper Haaland comes up against will have studied him before the match and knows what he does. He needs to make them think a bit more - either a panenka or a blast down the middle, just to make them think he may do that next time also. Maybe do that option if we're a few up in a game and then go back to normal on more key ones.
 
mattcity5 said:
The one (big) difference, is that each keeper you came up against hadn't seen any/many of your previous penalties.

Every keeper Haaland comes up against will have studied him before the match and knows what he does. He needs to make them think a bit more - either a panenka or a blast down the middle, just to make them think he may do that next time also. Maybe do that option if we're a few up in a game and then go back to normal on more key ones.
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Agreed.
And as another poster has said,pens are harder these days because there is so much info available to keepers on each penalty takers past history,so much technology for keepers to study before each match.
 
Not helped by the time to decide and the pressure put on the taker by the opposition all going into the area after the VAR review, there needs to be an instruction that after the review no player is allowed in the area aside from the nominated taker and GK, anyone else gets booked without question
 
mattcity5 said:
Before he took it they showed a graphic of where he puts them - probably two thirds to the left and a third to the right, where this one went.

None down the middle though.

I think he needs to throw in one or two down the middle to put a bit more doubt in the keepers mind.
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Haaland hits the ball too hard to go down the middle. Have to give the keeper time to fully get out of the way if he dives. Otherwise hits the keeper's legs unless you go high enough to avoid that possibility.
 
JRockBlues said:
Haaland hits the ball too hard to go down the middle. Have to give the keeper time to fully get out of the way if he dives. Otherwise hits the keeper's legs unless you go high enough to avoid that possibility.
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He's capable of it. He gets through one on one and chips sometimes, so could panenka it. The penalty v Liverpool wasn't a rocket either. It might have gone in if it was!

Every other (top) penalty taker will occasionally go down the middle, I think it's a bit odd to say Haaland can't, he's a top player. I don't think think he hits it harder than every other penalty taker around, nor has only one power setting...
 
Precise finishing isn’t really Haaland’s strength, it’s more his dominant way he finds space or attacks space and the timing and power of his shot that gets him so many goals.

Timing is a hard one to fool a keeper with from the penalty spot because there’s no hitting it early to catch the keeper off-guard with a penalty. Yes, there are run-up techniques where you can delay a shot but that’s not Haaland’s style. So his penalties are more about power to one side or the other and, if a keeper guesses the right way in-time, there’s a chance he’ll save it.

Haaland isn’t the sort of finisher yet who can ping it pin-point a foot inside the right-angle of post and cross bar, or low an inch inside the post, which the 95-100% success-rate penalty takers have in their locker. Both of those are never saved by a keeper, but neither are his style of finishing.

But as we’ve seen from other aspects of his game (heading, hold-up play), he’s determined to improve and does improve. He always seems to say things like, ‘yeah, I’m alright, but I can be better and want to get better’.

In 2023 he said:
www.bbc.com

Man City: 'I need to improve everything' - Haaland

Man City: 'I need to improve everything' - Haaland
www.bbc.com www.bbc.com

2024:
www.mancity.com

Haaland: I want to become even better

Erling Haaland says he is motivated by getting even better and recreating City’s incredible Treble-winning season.
www.mancity.com www.mancity.com

2025:
www.mancity.com

Haaland: Now I want to get even better!

In the wake of signing his new long-term contract, Erling Haaland says his focus is now firmly fixed on becoming an even better player and continuing his quest to help City achieve more success.
www.mancity.com www.mancity.com

I wouldn’t even necessarily say that penalties are that high up in the list of things he needs to improve on. He’s actually got a good record from the spot: 84% (Messi 77%, Neymar 81%, Salah 83%, CRonaldo 84%, Ibrahimovic 87%, Kane 89%, Lewandowski 90%…).

For me it’s his variety of finishing in 1on1s with the keeper and variety of distances he scores from that are next in-line to improve on, since he’s improved his heading and hold-up play.
 
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mattcity5 said:
Before he took it they showed a graphic of where he puts them - probably two thirds to the left and a third to the right, where this one went.

None down the middle though.

I think he needs to throw in one or two down the middle to put a bit more doubt in the keepers mind.
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I think the speed he runs in at, coupled with having a very angular frame and leaning heavily to the right, mitigates against any kind of shot down the middle, never mind one requiring as much delicacy and precision as a panenka.
I’m afraid Haaland’s poorish record from the spot is just a reflection of the fact that he hits everything either bottom left or bottom right and if the keeper goes the right way he’s got a 50/50 chance of saving it. Compare and contrast with Goofy at the Swamp, or Cole Palmer, or, in days gone by, Balotelli, who not only had 3 options instead of 2, but could throw in a pause to get the keeper to commit before then trundling it into the opposite corner.
Either way, he needs relieving of the responsibility
 
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