I think it is time for a rethink about penalty takers.Goalkeepers must know what whitts is doing,he cant be getting away with it every time he takes one.The trouble is do we have one in reserve.
The very fact that City have had only (I think) 3 penalties all season makes your point somewhat redundant. 2 out of 3 success rate ain't bad.
Of all the years Whitts has been taking the penalties i can only ever remember him missing 2. It would be madness to take that duty off him, probably one of the best penalty takers across all 4 divisions.
I think you'll find that Doyle was a very successful penalty taker at Chesterfield. I thought he was looking for the ball to take last Saturday's pen before Whitts nabbed it.
The lack of penalties awarded to us this season can't hide the predictability of the Whitt's penalty placement. As they say in financial circles, "past performance is no guarantee of future success". Whitts has perfected the art of hitting it straight down the middle assuming the keeper is going to commit to one side. The odds are pretty good because whichever way the keeper goes he's not going to save it. The problem could be that keepers are going to realise this and stand their ground. If the Brum keeper had been properly briefed and stood still, Whitts would have hit it into his midriff Even Slade's pre-match tactical talk could pick up that one.........
What pre match tactical talk is that then? Oh yes, the one that says wherever you have the ball on the pitch just slam it forward towards the edge of their penalty area and hope it bounces of Jones' head into their goal.
Hampshire - when Bluey and me mentioned tactics, we really meant TicTacs - loads of them in a pack, but they're all the bloody same........
Weve plenty of problems. Whitts penalties are not one of them. If the keeper stood still im sure hed place it to one of the corners.
Don't know if you're being serious Hilts, but that's rubbish. Virtually all penalty takers decide exactly where they're going to place it before their run up. Other than the very rare cheeky attempts, very few if any will wait for the keeper to commit before deciding where to stick it. Whitts is not daft. He knows the odds and has worked out that down the middle is by far the best bet. He is nothing if not calculating and tries to "do the keeper with his eyes" and send him one way or the other - then he blasts it down the middle. Ruddy wouldn't have saved his effort this season at Norwich if Whitts had picked his spot after he'd moved. Ruddy just stood tall and waited for Whitts. It was a decent strike but a poor effort at waist height just to Ruddy's left and he got his hands on it pretty comfortably. Whitts is a brilliant dead ball technician, but he needs to adapt to the info base that other clubs have built up on his methods or we'll see more of his kicks saved.
