[video=youtube;xzPMvAIrtQs]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzPMvAIrtQs[/video] Excuse the potato quality.
Balotelli is a great penalty taker. Anyone saying otherwise is talking nonsense basically. You can't put 24 out of 24 penalties away without being brilliant at them. Power is irrelevant if you have the skill to send the keeper the wrong way or place it perfectly in the corner when the keeper does guess right.
"World Class" has now been replaced in those circles ..... wait for it....... by "Legendary", as in "Legendary Customer Experience .. I kid ye not.
I was a world class penalty taker for ONE season only. I took 10 believe it or not. Scored them all and the goal keeper went the wrong way on each occasion. First game of the following season I missed 2 in the one match. I only took one more that season in a penalty shoot-out and nearly fluffed that. My penalty career was over!
Well that's an interesting view, and I can certainly understand the view that maybe the rule is a little too lenient on the taker. If more people were to adopt the Balo technique (which they probably will, though I imagine few people are capable of it) they might well reassess that law.
I missed two in a game once. Took one with my left foot and one with my right foot. Two years ago I also played in a 6 a side tournament as a 'ringer' for my mates work team and let them down, by missing a pen in the semi-final shoot-out and missing one in the final ... oops. My knee was then knackered and I haven't played since.
Do we have any world class posters on this message board as surely world class can't just be limited to describing a footballer?
Unfortunately, statistics brings us crashing to the ground. Balotelli might be a good penalty taker, or he may have been lucky. If an average player were expected to convert 85% of penalties (sounds about right to me) then a run of 16/16 (as in the clip of Balotelli) would happen to just under 7.5% of players. And that's the chance of 16/16 from when you start taking them - the chances of getting a run of 16/16 at some point in your career are much, much higher. To be fair to SRL, using the same maths on his performance since joining the Saints, if he were average (i.e. 85% successful) but lucky, it'd be a 1 in 181 chance that he'd have had his record of 32/32. Long odds, but not miraculous. So he might just be lucky. With all the clubs in the football league, it's getting on for likely that a record like his will happen to someone once in a while just through chance. Vin
That's all very well, but he's now on 24/24, so that reduces the odds of it being a fluke quite considerably doesn't it! And we're not only reliant on statistics, you can tell from watching those kicks that it's not a fluke, and he's far from an average penalty taker.
The average player isn't able to convert 85% of penalties. Not even close. You've just plucked that out of thin air. The number 1 penalty taker of most of the very top teams in Europe isn't converting 85% so I really don't know where on earth you've got that number from. There are hardly any players around who have taken over 15 penalties and converted 85% or higher. The only player I can think of is Lampard in the Premier League(and he has missed already this season. 3 out of 6 have been missed this season in the league). Just doing some quick research players like Messi, Rooney Van Persie and Gerrard are all below 80% on penalties but you think the average player can convert 85%? Right..
Interesting question. Whereas being World Class leaves you in a pool of the very few or one, let's not confuse it with the uniquely eccentric. I have no doubt that you are a World Class poster though St.G. You're best at something. Something that is classified as World Class has always been at the top of the tree, in terms of quality, skill, service, product, you name it. It is credited with being among the finest if not the very best. I suppose one can only be World Class if the skill, etc... is practised globally. So coming back to sport, and football, a player like Gareth Bale can indeed be World Class. However, I doubt that the same epithet can be attributed to a baseball player. Even one that appears in the World [newspaper] Series. The best they can hope for is Best in Class or Class Leading.
Yes I saw the same thing AND this is by number one choice penalty takers not the average player... incase anyone wants to have a look http://www.myfootballfacts.com/Premier_League_Penalty_Statistics.html
Yes, I have plucked it out of thin air (I said "sounds about right to me" which I hoped might have at least suggested it wasn't based on any research). The maths changes, but not the principle, namely that with 90 penalty-takers in various leagues, you're going to see some long unbroken runs that are just the result of random variation. Vin
The very lovely Mrs Godders says I am world class but I am not going to tell you what at but let's just say that it involves fluffy handcuffs. All joking aside you have to admit that Viagra is a Godsend.
I'm surprised it has been that low. I bet the scoring percentage for Southampton in the last 10 years has bucked that trend, whatever division we've been in. Le Tiss served us throughout the 90's. James Beattie had a perfect record during his time at Saints, I believe. Then we had a few in between. Then Lambert. Can we remember who the few were in between..? I'm guessing Crouch might be one.
