It's a good question. I suppose you could argue that if you dive then around 40% of the penalties are likely to go to the side you choose, but then you have to account for the fact that some of those will be unsaveable and some will go wide and not need saving. So it's probably close. Although if keepers start standing up more then it won't be long until fewer penalties go down the middle.
It's a quote from the article, rather than my question. I think, in the case of Cooper on Saturday, he genuinely thought there was a good chance the player would put it down the middle. He happened to guess wrong, but I think it was an educated guess rather than a complete gamble. As for the point @Chef Tyke made, some players wait until the keeper moves before deciding where to put the penalty. Ivan Toney is a famous example of this and better at it than, well, probably the best ever at it. But other players make up their mind where to hit the penalty a week before. There are plenty of examples on YouTube of the penalty hit down the middle and the keeper, who never moves, just catches it or picks it up.
I’ve always thought top corner and hard is best option. Sadly I can’t execute it with much regularity
My success rate at oakwell, is scored 80%. 4 out of 5. In front of 17k +. The goalie moved b4 he saved the one. Ref wanted shoooitin. Gitbag.
I appreciate that Murphy didn’t move, but it looked a f***** perfect penalty to me. So unless he’d dived left well before the ball was struck, he wasn’t getting it.
At least you’re allowed to go on there and get involved. Just tried having a look at Peterborough’s, and you now have to register to even read their posts.