penalties

[Tichi1]

when did we last save a penalty ?

We are about as good at saving penalties aswe are at scoring from corners, free kicks, and only slightly worse than we are at actually scoring our penalties.

Mesliere is hopeless given his massive frame... and even bigger head.

[norfolk white]

You should have stopped at hopeless, I?d rather have darlow in goal any day.

[Monaco_Totty]

You should have stopped at hopeless, I?d rather have darlow in goal any day.

Ah ha, the life of a keeper, eh.

Karl Darlow has saved 5 penalties in his career & conceded 31 in his 15 year yo-yo senior career playing for Forest, Newport, Walsall,Hull City, Newcastle & Leeds.

Darlow at 74kg & 6ft 3' & Meslier at 76kg & 6ft 5' are not ideal frames for pen techniques which involve handling, diving, reflexes, positioning & pushing of feet & frame off the ground.

My understanding is that diving is just the reach the keeper has with their dive & handling is how likely they are to hold or spill the ball, which both should be relevant when saving penalties.
Height is important in how much of the goal you cover in your dive, both in the direction of the dive & with trailing legs - tho the need to keep low is needed as it helps your push off foot into helping with the dive.
So penalty stats are tougher on keepers than takers for sure throughout a career.

At 80kg & 6ft 1' my brother defo has the edge as a keeper in height & weight ratio to maximise his body structure for quicker, more flexible diving particularly on low wider shots.

He was actually advised to add more muscle to core groups that help goalkeepers push off with their legs that include the quadriceps, hamstrings, hip extensors, gastrocnemius & gluteus maximus which has added 5kg to his frame this season so far.

He recently stopped an FC Copenhagen penalty effort in a UEFA youth league penalty sudden death shootout with 20,000 watching, when he saved a lowly struck effort to his left playing for Nantes - a drill he spends 20 mins each day practising diving low to the left.

Benched for the national team set up, he had only just recovered from a league match collision via a 50/50 situ, suffering split gums, broken teeth fragments removal & loss of a wisdom tooth with Doctors clearing him to resume playing only 14 days prior.

Such is the life & season of a goalkeeper on & off the pitch whether benched or injured ! 🤪
As the saying goes you cannot please them all NW when choosing a keeper.

[Orgoner]

Cool!

Looks like he’s progressing nicely!