Penalty takers

[ulsterchelsea 3,221]

Torres! What's the sense in having a 50 mill striker in your team who is struggling and wont even take a fucking pen? Seems bizarre to me

[manpe 10,861]

Whoever has the confidence to take one. Penalties are as much luck as anything else. If the keeper goes the other way for Luiz's pen then we would all be saying it was a good pen and should take them going forward. Lamps as missed his share recently. No point looking at this in any detail.....

Tbf you could see he was going left as soon as he started his run. His position, or the run angle suggested that a right footer is going to shoot left. It was pretty easy for the goalie to read that... I might be mistaken though, maybe some goalkeeper from this forum (BlueLion?) can give his own view.. I think Luiz was running in a too straight line which for a right footer means going left, for a left footer means going right. If you begin your run with a sharper angle towards the ball, it's much harder to predict the side you'll choose.

[xPetrCechx 13,578]

MATA or RAUL.

[Peace. 4,352]

Kalou to take a penalty ? Lmao. To take a penalty, he should first feature in a game.

[Peace. 4,352]

I have never seen mata take a pen (did he take them at valencia?) but I get the feeling that he wouldn't be very good. Dunno just an impression. Like he'd try to place it but with not a lot of power which is always risky

Hum... He seems to be great at free kick... he might be good at penalty.

Meireles hasn't enough shot quality, imo to do this.

And don't forget Cole, he is good.

[Sheva. 5,373]

Yes, Mata took penalties at Valencia

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-BLGfuOyfc

[francozola 2,040]

My bad. That's a superb penalty.

[bluiz4 1]

Luiz shouldn't be written off after one penalty miss. Luiz pen vs fulham was class, if lamps isn't on the pitch and he wants to take the pen i wouldn't have a problem with it.

[BlueLion. 21,491]

Whoever has the confidence to take one. Penalties are as much luck as anything else. If the keeper goes the other way for Luiz's pen then we would all be saying it was a good pen and should take them going forward. Lamps as missed his share recently. No point looking at this in any detail.....

Agreed. Whoever feels they can take the kick should have it. Under Ranieri it used to be whoever won the kick would take it, which was quite a successful tactic. Personally I think Kalou is our best penalty taker, he gets all of his penalties in the top right corner, very impressive.

[LDN Blue 7,903]

Agreed. Whoever feels they can take the kick should have it. Under Ranieri it used to be whoever won the kick would take it, which was quite a successful tactic. Personally I think Kalou is our best penalty taker, he gets all of his penalties in the top right corner, very impressive.

Hmm, I remember that tactic. But the thing with that is, you still have to have some ability to take one, be it placement or power. Confidence is also a huge factor. Another problem is little squabbles on the pitch about someone wanting to take it (i.e. Drogba or Taarabt).

AVB said they assign 2 takers on the pitch and they decide between themselves, so I assume on a normal day it's between Lampard & Anelka. This works better I believe, because if one doesn't feel confident, the other can step up.

[Rambo 1,729]

It's a shame Kalou can't finish like that in a game.

[CHOULO19 24,332]

Whom here has seen every chelsea player taking a sufficient number of penalties to judge their penalty taking abilities?

Well, AVB has, so if he says Luiz and Anelka would take pens when Lamps is not on, then I think it's safe to deduce they're two of the best takers in the squad. So I'd choose Nikolas Anelka and David Luiz.

[BlueLion. 21,491]

That is a very fair point.

I can only assume the lads practice penalties in training, meaning they are able to decide amongst themselves who should take it. The obvious hierarchy is Lampard > Drogba > Anelka > whoever feels confident, and I can't complain with that.

[dodojojo 510]

Torres! What's the sense in having a 50 mill striker in your team who is struggling and wont even take a fucking pen? Seems bizarre to me

I don't understand this reasoning at all. Strikers should take penalties just because they're expensive?

What if he had missed? Then the commentators and everyone would be moaning why Chelsea would allow someone twho hasn't taken a competitive penalty in 4 1/2 years and what a greedy bastard Torres was. And everyone would laugh about how desperate he was for a goal.

He used to take them for Atletico and even occasionally for Spain. He was okay but somewhere along the way he got into team situations where there were much better penalty takers and he stop taking them.

You're either a good penalty kicker or you're not. It's very little to do with position. There are goalkeepers who are first choice penalty takers.

I knew this issue would be brought up as soon Luiz missed and the commentator started his whinging about Torres. If he did his homework, he would know Torres has never taken a competitive penalty since coming to England. Maybe that's a good reason why he shouldn't be taking them? Don't remember commentators speculating about Torres when Gerrard or Kuyt missed for Liverpool. Or when Villa or Alonso missed for Spain.

[Liquidator 5,176]

Mikel

I think it is a difficult one. I would have Drogba taking them if he is on the pitch. Lampard seems to have got worse since 2009. He used to score every one he took but has not been so impressive the last few years. He could hit them along the floor which wouldn't give the keeper a chance but recently they have been coming off the ground which makes them a lot easier to save. He missed against Fulham in the Carling Cup and his penalty against Norwich was less than convincing. It was neither in a corner nor down the middle so if the keeper had gone the right way it would have been easy to save. Drogba is generally quite good at penalties. Apart from against Spurs I cant remember when he has missed.

When Luiz took against Genk it was not a dreadful penalty. However he was a lot more and almost too casual in the way he stepped up which perhaps distracted him from getting the ball right into the corner. Against Fulham he just got on with it and scored a very good penalty.

Mata and Kalou are both good takers too.

[ulsterchelsea 3,221]

I don't understand this reasoning at all. Strikers should take penalties just because they're expensive?

What if he had missed? Then the commentators and everyone would be moaning why Chelsea would allow someone twho hasn't taken a competitive penalty in 4 1/2 years and what a greedy bastard Torres was. And everyone would laugh about how desperate he was for a goal.

He used to take them for Atletico and even occasionally for Spain. He was okay but somewhere along the way he got into team situations where there were much better penalty takers and he stop taking them.

You're either a good penalty kicker or you're not. It's very little to do with position. There are goalkeepers who are first choice penalty takers.

I knew this issue would be brought up as soon Luiz missed and the commentator started his whinging about Torres. If he did his homework, he would know Torres has never taken a competitive penalty since coming to England. Maybe that's a good reason why he shouldn't be taking them? Don't remember commentators speculating about Torres when Gerrard or Kuyt missed for Liverpool. Or when Villa or Alonso missed for Spain.

I don't understand this reasoning at all. Strikers should take penalties just because they're expensive?

What if he had missed? Then the commentators and everyone would be moaning why Chelsea would allow someone twho hasn't taken a competitive penalty in 4 1/2 years and what a greedy bastard Torres was. And everyone would laugh about how desperate he was for a goal.

He used to take them for Atletico and even occasionally for Spain. He was okay but somewhere along the way he got into team situations where there were much better penalty takers and he stop taking them.

You're either a good penalty kicker or you're not. It's very little to do with position. There are goalkeepers who are first choice penalty takers.

I knew this issue would be brought up as soon Luiz missed and the commentator started his whinging about Torres. If he did his homework, he would know Torres has never taken a competitive penalty since coming to England. Maybe that's a good reason why he shouldn't be taking them? Don't remember commentators speculating about Torres when Gerrard or Kuyt missed for Liverpool. Or when Villa or Alonso missed for Spain.

what commentator in his right mind is going to chastise Torres for being greedy for wanting to take a pen given the lack of goals he has had. When I used to play I was a striker and although I could take a pen anyway, if I hadn't scored in a few and we got a pen I couldn't wait to get at it. What better opportunity can you have than one on one with the keeper and no one closing you down. Obviously IM not comparing myself to Torres but I think a lot of the time these are the comparisons that we as football fans draw on but don't tell me that some people just aren't good at pens, if your a striker in poor scoring form there is no better chance to get yourself on the score sheet and if he is afraid of what there commentators and media outlets will say should he miss then I sugges he knocks football on the head because he is firmly in the spotlight and any striker afraid of taking on a goal scoring oppertunity ain't worth having

[dodojojo 510]

what commentator in his right mind is going to chastise Torres for being greedy for wanting to take a pen given the lack of goals he has had. When I used to play I was a striker and although I could take a pen anyway, if I hadn't scored in a few and we got a pen I couldn't wait to get at it. What better opportunity can you have than one on one with the keeper and no one closing you down. Obviously IM not comparing myself to Torres but I think a lot of the time these are the comparisons that we as football fans draw on but don't tell me that some people just aren't good at pens, if your a striker in poor scoring form there is no better chance to get yourself on the score sheet and if he is afraid of what there commentators and media outlets will say should he miss then I sugges he knocks football on the head because he is firmly in the spotlight and any striker afraid of taking on a goal scoring oppertunity ain't worth having

Why is this so hard to understand? The coach picked two penalty takers for the game. Neither of them were Torres. It just so happened that one of them missed. Torres isn't the best of penalty takers and he hasn't taken them for a very long time. The best penalty kickers should take them for the team. PKs are precious, they're not to be arbitrarily bandied about.

I'm not saying media criticism should affect what Torres does on the pitch. I'm saying whatever he does, there will be criticism of outlandish proportions. It's really damned he does, damned if he doesn't. If he missed the PK instead of Luiz, you don't think there would be moans about how Chelsea allowed a rusty (in terms of PKs) striker take the kick? Followed by stories about kow-towing to his ego, helping and failing miserably to buffer his fragile confidence, etc. There was a story in the Daily Fail about how Chelsea were going out of their way to coddle their Spanish superstar by letting him sit next to Juan Mata in the dressing room. This was for the simple matter of Torres having his locker next to Mata's. This was a "newsworthy" story.

[Kieran. 6,317]

Why is this so hard to understand? The coach picked two penalty takers for the game. Neither of them were Torres. It just so happened that one of them missed. Torres isn't the best of penalty takers and he hasn't taken them for a very long time. The best penalty kickers should take them for the team. PKs are precious, they're not to be arbitrarily bandied about.

I'm not saying media criticism should affect what Torres does on the pitch. I'm saying whatever he does, there will be criticism of outlandish proportions. It's really damned he does, damned if he doesn't. If he missed the PK instead of Luiz, you don't think there would be moans about how Chelsea allowed a rusty (in terms of PKs) striker take the kick? Followed by stories about kow-towing to his ego, helping and failing miserably to buffer his fragile confidence, etc. There was a story in the Daily Fail about how Chelsea were going out of their way to coddle their Spanish superstar by letting him sit next to Juan Mata in the dressing room. This was for the simple matter of Torres having his locker next to Mata's. This was a "newsworthy" story.

How about if he takes it and makes it. Because his job as a striker is to score goals and he's not doing that.

[dodojojo 510]

How about if he takes it and makes it. Because his job as a striker is to score goals and he's not doing that.

Then criticize his lack of scoring. Critique why he's not doing his job. Don't conflate his lack of scoring with taking penalties since he's not being a penalty taker for a very long time. The penalty kicking is a strawman argument. What's next, people will start questioning why he won't step up and take free kicks?

That's the issue isn't it? He's not scoring, fans are angry so they glom on anything to beat him over the head. The thing you don't even have to because you can just concentrate on the things he is supposed to be doing and currently not doing well. And what he has done and is supposed to do since he's come to England is to score from open play.

Simply put, he doesn't take penalties because he's not very good at them and/or Chelsea have deemed that there are better options. Why would Chelsea want someone who isn't very good at PKs to take them?

[The Big Drog 1,110]

Anyone but Anelka, I like Anelka but his penalties are the shits.