Balotelli and penalties...

Smithwicks Man

Keeping up with my recent trend of starting threads because I'm bored. Here's another :pac:

I may be biased but I don't think this is a ridiculous claim:

Is Balotelli the best penalty taker in world football?

Is Balotelli becoming one of the best, if not the best penalty taker ever?

24/24 and counting.

Essien

He's certainly very good at sending the keeper the wrong way, though that's not a skill I'd have much faith in.

A lot, maybe more than half, of those penalties would be considered dreadful if the keeper guesses the right way. I suppose that's his trick though, having the alertness and speed of thought to place it after the keeper has given away which way he's going.

shrewdness

His record speaks for itself tbf. Can't think of anyone else currently in world football I'd rather see taking a crucial penalty.

gosplan

A poor man's John Aldridge.

Paully D

Frank Lampard certainly in with a shout over a much larger sample size.

Smithwicks Man

Essien wrote: »

He's certainly very good at sending the keeper the wrong way, though that's not a skill I'd have much faith in.

A lot, maybe more than half, of those penalties would be considered dreadful if the keeper guesses the right way. I suppose that's his trick though, having the alertness and speed of thought to place it after the keeper has given away which way he's going.

I don't think he'd have placed them penalties so centrally if he didn't know the keeper was going the wrong way. When the keeper didn't go the right side/didn't more until he kicked it then he just put it in the corner.

The only way I see him missing is if he missed the target!

premierstone

gosplan wrote: »

A poor man's John Aldridge.

An even poorer mans Matt Le Tissier! The master

GLaDOS

Matt Le Tiss has a very impressive record to beat, 47 out of 48.

That said, Balotelli has a sense of unknockable confidence about him, which is essential for taking a penalty.

newballsplease

I used to think Cantona would never miss... Cant remember what his record was or if he missed much.

Smithwicks Man

Le Tissier's record is phenomenal.

Graham Alexander was a bit of a penalty king as well if I remember correctly ?

Blatter

Ballack, Shearer and Gerrard were/are other great penalty takers not mentioned yet.

Think van Nistelrooy scored something like 16 or 17 in a row for United too but then missed a few.

pandaboy

For the first two minutes he's pretty much predictable, and club with their research would see that. Run up, stop, kick towards right post.

He takes them well though and is quite resolute, but currently the best penalty kick taker, I don't know. His record is impressive, he hasn't missed one yet, is that right?

pandaboy

The celebration at 1:36 is pretty impressive.

Blatter

newballsplease wrote: »

I used to think Cantona would never miss... Cant remember what his record was or if he missed much.

14 out of 16 for United.

http://www.manutd.com/en/News-And-Features/Features/2012/Nov/manchester-united-penalty-statistics.aspx

F1ngers

Ray Stewart has a record of 81 out of 86 - That's fairly impressive.

Smithwicks Man

pandaboy wrote: »

For the first two minutes he's pretty much predictable, and club with their research would see that. Run up, stop, kick towards right post.

He takes them well though and is quite resolute, but currently the best penalty kick taker, I don't know. His record is impressive, he hasn't missed one yet, is that right?

I think he's only kicking to the right because the keepers keep going to their right if you get me...

24 scored out of 24 is mightily impressive. Few tough ones there. Euro's against England in the shootout and the one vs Dortmund spring to mind.

94th min penalty on his Milan debut to win the game after waitin 3 mins to take it is another and also the one for Milan on the last day of the season. 6 mins from time with Champions League qualification on the line.

Impressive for a 22 year old

Thecon21

Pirlo as a peno taker for me although Balo's record is very good

elefant

Best I can remember is Gaizka Mendieta. Never saw him miss, and his style was just class. Just rolled them in.

(that one against Ireland though :mad:)

wonga77

The penalty against england at 2:40 and palermo at 3:40 were the best because the goalkeeper stood still to the last second forcing him to plant it in the corner. Dont you love when a goalkeeper tries to put off a taker and it backfires on them, ala Hart and Weidenfeller

GTR63

They miss a few but love Totti and Zlatan as penalty takers.
And hands up how many here used to try to do the 2 step Rivaldo ones.

kfallon

The Holy Goalie, Artur Boruc.....2 keepers wouldn't have saved this :pac:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_d6f78fdK_Y

Cienciano

Essien wrote: »

He's certainly very good at sending the keeper the wrong way, though that's not a skill I'd have much faith in.

A lot, maybe more than half, of those penalties would be considered dreadful if the keeper guesses the right way. I suppose that's his trick though, having the alertness and speed of thought to place it after the keeper has given away which way he's going.

Who cares? A good peno is one that goes in, a bad one is one that doesn't. 24 good penos from Mario imho

Dr_Brian_Cocks

Cienciano wrote: »

Who cares? A good peno is one that goes in, a bad one is one that doesn't. 24 good penos from Mario imho

Exactly.

Commentators always say this, for example when a **** is placed into the opposite side the keeper went they'll say "excellent penalty" but where it was placed was bad, just the keeper went the wrong way.

kfallon

GTR63 wrote: »

They miss a few but love Totti and Zlatan as penalty takers.
And hands up how many here used to try to do the 2 step Rivaldo ones.

Didn't Bepe Signori do a one step peno, I remember everyone trying it when we first got Serie A on Channel 4!

Cienciano

kfallon wrote: »

Didn't Bepe Signori do a one step peno, I remember everyone trying it when we first got Serie A on Channel 4!

I remember Lazio playing an english team and he missed a peno. They were talking about his terrible technique and it's no surprise he missed. But anyone who watched Football Italia knew he scored something like 20 in a row with the one step.

kfallon

Cienciano wrote: »

I remember Lazio playing an english team and he missed a peno. They were talking about his terrible technique and it's no surprise he missed. But anyone who watched Football Italia knew he scored something like 20 in a row with the one step.

Enjoy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YOrYqTuAes

dfx-

I thought Irwin would never miss.

On Balotelli, I think the shuffle or step before taking it detracts for me.

Unearthly

The peno against Spurs was a huge pressure pen but he made it look easy. Definitely someone I would choose as one of the best at them

pandaboy

Smithwicks Man wrote: »

I think he's only kicking to the right because the keepers keep going to their right if you get me...

24 scored out of 24 is mightily impressive. Few tough ones there. Euro's against England in the shootout and the one vs Dortmund spring to mind.

94th min penalty on his Milan debut to win the game after waitin 3 mins to take it is another and also the one for Milan on the last day of the season. 6 mins from time with Champions League qualification on the line.

Impressive for a 22 year old

Extremely impressive. That can't be taken away from him, the penalty against Hart was a super tekker. That bit of top spin really nailed it.

Morzadec

dfx- wrote: »

I thought Irwin would never miss.

On Balotelli, I think the shuffle or step before taking it detracts for me.

But it's the shuffle and step that makes him such a good taker. It's his way of committing the goalkeeper and then knocking it in the other way, so it's basically the reason why he's 24/24.

I also have a theory that Balotelli just feels absolutely no pressure at all. He's a strange human being and I could imagine him stepping up to take a peno in a World Cup final and just doing the usual. He is ultra-confident and like I said a strange individual, maybe not affected by pressure, occasion, expectation etc.. the way others would be.

Certainly when he steps up you feel like it's a certain goal and there's not many I'd say that about. Lampard maybe, Ronaldo (I know he's missed a few but generally he's very good and I wouldn't expect him to miss). Messi as well probably but the most important penalty of his life he missed.

24 is not a small sample size at all, but I think we'd have to wait til he gets to at least 50 before making a proper judgement. At the moment it looks like he'll never miss though I agree!

roanoke

If we're talking all-time then another one who was good at pens back in the day was Jan Molby.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtsSKkwWtbI

Morzadec

Watching that video, one thing is clear -

If you move in any way early as the goalkeeper, you are fu*ked. Balotelli is absolutely brilliant at waiting until the last moment to see if the keeper has leaned slightly to one direction and then he'll send them the wrong way with ease.

Some keepers know this - you'll see Krul refusing to move. But the thing is he is so good at picking the corner that Krul doesn't have a chance to get to the ball if he doesn't move early.

It's a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation for the goalkeeper really, and that shows just how good Balotelli is at penalties. I remember reading Le Tisser saying he did the same thing - if a keeper moved early he'd simply knock the ball in the other corner. If the keeper didn't move early his penalties were powerful and accurate enough to not give the keeper a chance. Le Tissier's record was 48/49 so it would be interesting to see if Balotelli can get anywhere near that very impressive figure.

Of all the penalties there, Hart in the Euro's gets closest to what I would imagine is the optimal technique for a goalkeeper facing Balotelli, which is not surprising considering he's probably faced a good few of his penos on the training ground. Hart actually does really well and gets kind of close, but the penalty is just so good, too powerful and accurate for a keeper who is moving so late (which you absolutely HAVE to do against Balotelli - if Hart had moved earlier Balotelli simply would have passed it into the other corner).

He's a nightmare penalty taker to face as a goalkeeper and I suppose the only thing they can do is what Hart does and hope that the penalty isn't quite of the same quality as the one in the Euro shootout.

It will be interesting to see what his record will be when he reaches 50 penalties. 50/50 would be truly phenomenal but I doubt he can do it. Really anything over 46 would be very impressive too.

At the moment I'd still give the best of all time crown to Le Tiss (at least for the moment), but I think it'd be hard to argue against Balotelli being the best at the moment.

adaminho

I think its a bit too early to judge Ballotelli. My favorite of all time is Koeman who still holds the record of most consecutive peno's scored in La Liga with 25 in a row.

kryogen

Le Tiss was unreal, Ballack was phenomenal too, of the current crop Balotelli is right up there alright.

osarusan

Thought this was one of the most unstoppable ever.

Morzadec

osarusan wrote: »

Thought this was one of the most unstoppable ever.

That is the definition of unstoppable

Richard Hillman

I would prefer a penalty taker with a genuine technique rather than relying on trickery. Balotelli waits for you to move then hits it the other side. All a keeper has to do is dummy a movement to one side then dive the other way.

No doubt he is cool as **** as he is stepping up but his penalties are savable. A great penalty taker for me is somebody that can hit the top corner or within a foot of the post every time.

I am surprised that football teams do not employ rugby kicking coaches to work on their set pieces. You see players taking penalties and corners with zero technique. They probably "practice" dead balls hundreds of times in training without realising or understanding the mechanics of what they are doing. Wayne Rooney is probably the worst for it. His body position is awful.

markc1184

Whilst I dont think he's the best around at the minute he is without doubt right up there. What I like about his style is with a lot of his penalties even though he has sent the keeper the wrong way, he keeps the ball relatively close to the keeper, its by no means tucked away in the corner. Just toying with the keeper.

LiamoSail

Richard Hillman wrote: »

I would prefer a penalty taker with a genuine technique rather than relying on trickery. Balotelli waits for you to move then hits it the other side. All a keeper has to do is dummy a movement to one side then dive the other way.

So why has no keeper managed to do that in 24 attempts? Why did jurgen klopp not suggest that to weidenfeller, or hart/fredal pull it off?

His technique hasn't been found out after 24 attempts, which suggests to me its fairly solid, as oppose to a bit of lucky trickery

Phoenix Park

Blatter wrote: »

Ballack, Shearer and Gerrard were/are other great penalty takers not mentioned yet.

Think van Nistelrooy scored something like 16 or 17 in a row for United too but then missed a few.

As a Liverpool fan I can assure you Steven Gerrard is no cert from the spot, in fact I always dread him stepping up. Missed V West Brom last season when we lost 0-2 at home. Game v Blackburn away season before another miss. He is approaching double-figures in penalty misses for us, when you consider Dirk Kuyt took his fair share when he was at the club and Luis Suarez in recent seasons too, thats far from impressive.

kfallon

Phoenix Park wrote: »

As a Liverpool fan I can assure you Steven Gerrard is no cert from the spot, in fact I always dread him stepping up. Missed V West Brom last season when we lost 0-2 at home. Game v Blackburn away season before another miss. He is approaching double-figures in penalty misses for us, when you consider Dirk Kuyt took his fair share when he was at the club and Luis Suarez in recent seasons too, thats far from impressive.

Don't think Suarez has taken many for Liverpool tbh, I can only recall 2, first one he ballooned over the bar v Sunderland (first game of 11/12 season) and one against Brighton in the cup later that season which he also missed!

Dirk was a very reliable peno taker!

Richard Hillman

LiamoSail wrote: »

So why has no keeper managed to do that in 24 attempts? Why did jurgen klopp not suggest that to weidenfeller, or hart/fredal pull it off?

His technique hasn't been found out after 24 attempts, which suggests to me its fairly solid, as oppose to a bit of lucky trickery

I dont think they have thought it out tbh. Just like Man Utd and Wayne Rooney still do not have clue what they are doing wrong. I do not think that clubs (even at the level of Man Utd/Man City etc) are really thinking about the technique of a dead ball specialist.

Have we ever seen a keeper trying to dictate on what side Balotelli sends his penalties? All I have seen are keepers trying to stay still and failing.

Insect Overlord

Richard Hillman wrote: »

I am surprised that football teams do not employ rugby kicking coaches to work on their set pieces. You see players taking penalties and corners with zero technique. They probably "practice" dead balls hundreds of times in training without realising or understanding the mechanics of what they are doing.

On that note, Diego Forlan's technique against Brazil last night was great to watch.

mitosis

markc1184 wrote: »

Whilst I dont think he's the best around at the minute he is without doubt right up there.

So, out of curiosity, whom do you reckon is doing better?

Donnielighto

i was over in manchester last august visiting mates, were playing derby on a green. balo was walkin past and joined in. he got a penalty, gave me 100/1 that hed score it, put a tenner on. fingertips baby. 24/25 that was a competive game of derby.








truth

markc1184

mitosis wrote: »

So, out of curiosity, whom do you reckon is doing better?

Personally I think Pirlo is a better taker but thats just my opinion.

mitosis

markc1184 wrote: »

Personally I think Pirlo is a better taker but thats just my opinion.

I stand to be corrected, but I think Pirlo has missed every penalty he has taken for his club in the last two seasons.

Sir Gallagher

Something i always found strange about peno takers is, why is it that strikers generally seem to be sh1te at penos?

jem

loved this penalty by dr socretes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zelMbnH-DEE

markc1184

mitosis wrote: »

I stand to be corrected, but I think Pirlo has missed every penalty he has taken for his club in the last two seasons.

Well if thats the case I take it back. I havent seen much of him lately.

GavRedKing

Sir Gallagher wrote: »

Something i always found strange about peno takers is, why is it that strikers generally seem to be sh1te at penos?

I actually cringe when I see Mata taking them and hes fairly good from corners and free kciks.

I think hes missed 3 of the last 4 for us including 1 in the UCL shot out.