Bottom Corner Pens - a lost (and costly) art in Eng.

[Guest Tyson]

Based on our shooting tendencies in shoot-outs, and the manner in which we bomb-out, where opposition keepers are often made out to look like stars. And it's something of a pet hate of mine. I have great level of admiration for the German n.t. in particular - they respect open-play shooting (distance shooting) and penalty taking as two separate components, meticulously fine-tuning each one in the process.

 

The Germans (and they are the best example) are robotic when it comes to the said penalty shot. It's a shot (when taking into account keepers' practiced stance & movement on the line, reaction time & reach) which is shoot-out exclusive. It's hammered into them, their shoot-out pattern of shot is indicative of this. It's the toughest shot to keep out, as the trajectory of shot doesn't sit within the GK's comfort zone out of the stance (ie.  between knee/waist & shoulder/head height). It doesn't eccentuate a GK's reaction-time & shot-stopping athleticism & instincts within the aforementioned comfort zone.

 

In our case have very clean ball-strikers who damage teams from the edge-of-the-box & beyond, ranging from Lampard/Gerrard to Ashley Young and the new generation. Their shooting strength in open play (type of shoot: power with 'work' applied to the ball) from distance, in open play & set pieces from around-the-box, has crossed over into the n.t's penalty taking. As a coaching ideology it might of hoping that the players' ball striking will carry the team over the line, as opposed to treating pen.shooting as an entirely  separate skillset. I'm not questioning the lack of effort in camp, there have been quotes from camp that pen.shooting is a priority. Maybe the ideology (as hinted at), rather than effort, is the flaw.

 

 

[Andy]

I think it's just more of a psychological thing than anything technical tbh. Anybody (especially a professional footballer) can hammer home penalties from 12 yards when there's no pressure, we buckle because as a country it's become ingrained in our mindset that "we just lose" when it comes to penalties. The Germans are the opposite.

[Optimistic Nut]

I was looking for the @leeryder bit.

 

Agreed to an extent though but I seem to remember most of Germany's in 96 being high and in the corners where Seaman had no chance of reaching.

[ponsaelius]

I think it's just more of a psychological thing than anything technical tbh. Anybody (especially a professional footballer) can hammer home penalties from 12 yards when there's no pressure, we buckle because as a country it's become ingrained in our mindset that "we just lose" when it comes to penalties. The Germans are the opposite.

 

I'm not sure, I think its a combination of both factors. A player may be nervous but if they have clean technique it may be more likely to compensate for this.

 

You have a shit player who is also bricking it and they just blast it without much finesse, or scuff it. Rooney looked the most nervous of all of them yesterday but his ability pulled through.

[AyeDubbleYoo]

I thought Young was going to miss, his head was down and he was shitting it. Same with Cole. Psychology is 90% of a penalty shootout.

 

Just look at Balotelli and Pirlo, cold as ice.

[loki679]

I thought Young was going to miss, his head was down and he was shitting it. Same with Cole. Psychology is 90% of a penalty shootout.

 

Just look at Balotelli and Pirlo, cold as ice.

 

Spot on.  As soon as they started walking up you could see they were going to miss.

[Tiresias]

yeah young had silly long runnup and cole paused ages. It's in the heads, and England have been for a long time a mentally weak team, penalty shoot out record reflects that.

 

I love the interpretation that Pirlo's penalty saved Italy mentally showing Hart to be just as fallible as everyone else after arguably player before him had tried to do too much.

[AyeDubbleYoo]

I would love to know why Pirlo decided to take his penalty like that. If it really was to get inside England's heads, it was absolute sporting genius.

[maybe_next_year]

I thought Young was going to miss, his head was down and he was shitting it. Same with Cole. Psychology is 90% of a penalty shootout.

 

Just look at Balotelli and Pirlo, cold as ice.

 

don't know why Cole took one, he looked like he'd already missed when we was walking up, 0 confidence in himself was obvious. didn't think Young was too bad tbh, made the right decision with what to do with it.

[Mr. Snrub]

I thought Young was going to miss, his head was down and he was shitting it. Same with Cole. Psychology is 90% of a penalty shootout.

 

Just look at Balotelli and Pirlo, cold as ice.

 

don't know why Cole took one, he looked like he'd already missed when we was walking up, 0 confidence in himself was obvious. didn't think Young was too bad tbh, made the right decision with what to do with it.

 

Scored one in CL Final.

[Ocho]

Harsh on Ashley Cole, as he's generally quite a good penalty taker and has been successful for England, Arsenal and Chelsea in penalty shootouts.

 

Could be a Giggs, but Pirlo had already tried the same penalty with different results.

 

http://www.youtube.com/embed/zGyYRhoDAVg

[Hanshithispantz]

I don't know if all nations do this, but one thing I never understand is why we seem to have our most composed takers kick first and tail off. The first penalty should always be taken by your main penalty taker like as it sets things in motion for the rest, but when it comes down to "miss and you're out" you don't want Ashley Cole taking it ffs, you want someone like Rooney to step up.

 

I would have even sent Joe Hart down to take a kick before Ashley Young, it was fucking obvious he was going to miss.

 

This is unless you have to name your kickers to the referee (you don't have to as far as i'm aware?).

[Dave]

Thought you did?

[Hanshithispantz]

You probably do tbh, I havn't read or heard anywhere that clears it up though so i'm just assuming

 

Sewelly, give me the answers.

[Village Idiot]

I would love to know why Pirlo decided to take his penalty like that. If it really was to get inside England's heads, it was absolute sporting genius.

 

I saw him take the exact same penalty against us in a friendly. Pinto saved it

 

But yeah, it took massive confidence to shoot it like that, and it probably helped the other players mentally.

[Guest n4e]

I would love to know why Pirlo decided to take his penalty like that. If it really was to get inside England's heads, it was absolute sporting genius.

 

I saw him take the exact same penalty against us in a friendly. Pinto saved it

 

But yeah, it took massive confidence to shoot it like that, and it probably helped the other players mentally.

 

Scored in the Italian Super Cup against Buffon doing the same thing.

[henke]

Everyone one of our takers looked to be shitting themselves. Probably massively over-simplifying the whole thing there, but that's why we lost.

[SiLvOR]

Do you think it's something we should work on more at grass roots level? I don't remember as a kid ever having practices where we would spend a good amount of time on penalties, including techniques etc. When we actually did have a pelanty shoot out, we just kinda picked the 5 "best" kids at kicking a ball and that was that. I duno maybe I'm way over thinking this but a lot needs to change at grass roots for us to progress as a nation so perhaps this might be something we can look at too?

[Jayson]

We miss because of the pressure placed on us from losing past shootouts. Thats all it is, weaker mentality.

[Dave]

Everyone one of our takers looked to be shitting themselves. Probably massively over-simplifying the whole thing there, but that's why we lost.

 

Aye. You're stuttering just posting about it on an internet forum.

[JCONA]

We needed shola

[Guest Tyson]

I was looking for the @leeryder bit.

 

Agreed to an extent though but I seem to remember most of Germany's in 96 being high and in the corners where Seaman had no chance of reaching.

 

Either way the Germans hit the corners, repeatedly. The bottom corner one is a signature penalty when i think of the German n.t. But they never seem to stray into hitting them into the keepers' comfort zone.

 

That sort of robotic precision, where technique overrides the pressure of the situation, is the result of the meticulous breaking down of one facet of the game (as hinted at in the OP).

 

I wouldn't expect anything less from the Germans: by adopting such a measured, purpose built approach in their training camps, which borders on scientific.

 

 

[BoSelecta]

We miss because of the pressure placed on us from losing past shootouts. Thats all it is, weaker mentality.

Exactly this. That we're known for being beaten and going out on pens surely puts more pressure on our pen takers than other nations. I cant even think of another nation with this notion that we always go out on pens hanging over them.

[AyeDubbleYoo]

Also, I doubt we practice the penalty to the point where we know we're going to score. IMO, every professional player should practice the penalty to the point it's automatic, like Basketball players and free-throws.

[The College Dropout]

Cole is one England's bankers tbh.

 

Scored in an FA Cup Final for Arsenal. Against Portugal and in the CL. Only previous time he's missed was against Everton.

 

You felt he, Rooney & Gerrard had to score if we was to win. The rest, can't have been in a similar position before.

 

All this talk of German penalty takers, Bastian choked his in the CL final.

 

(Technique x confidence/nerves) + Physical condition + an inch of luck + how good goalkeeper is at penalties = Penalties. imo. Technique and confidence go hand in hand. The more confident you are the better your technqiue, vice versa. Cole has good technique, i've seen him go for and succeed at the most difficult/rewarding top corner before and succeed. But for some reason his run up was unassured, as was the finish. We have

 

The best penalties are top corner btw. Think Nani in that shoot out. They have 0% chance of being saved (based on a report I read), although of course they can hit the bar.

 

 

http://www.leadersinperformance.com/the-leader/prozone-analysis-penalty-shootouts-a-lottery-or-a-science/

 

Great piece by Prozone on penalties.