Ollie Watkins

[Somniloquism]

McGinn has missed one fair enough, he hasn't missed 7 out of 12 though.

Tielemans has scored 1 in his last 5 (not including shootouts) but you mention him as first choice taker. I was just stating that McGinn would have had more pressure to score as he missed the other night. Watkins scored so shouldn't have.

(Also it is 7 out of 13 if going on CD's stats, still not good enough but you don't have to make even those stats appear worse then actually are as well).

Tielemans - 25 scored, 7 missed.

Big difference.

But most of those 7 have been in the last 3 years. Before scoring for Belgium last month, he hadn't scored a Pen in open play since Septermber 2022. 4 straight missed.

[Rory]

Not sure how many he actually took for us, but I used to love Big John Carew's approach to penalty-taking. Either he was scoring, or the goalkeeper was going to hospital.

[PeterWithesShin]

Flipside if I was ever watching a game and Julian Dicks took one I expected him to score, and he was hardly blessed with skills or technique.

[Smirker]

It is its own skill, goal scoring and even general technique aren't always a guide to someone being good at them. Merson never gave me confidence despite his ability, as an example.

Yep. Maradona and Messi no great shakes at them.

Messi's conversion rate is just under 78% which is pretty good tbf. Ronaldo's is 84.5% for comparison.

[OzVilla]

I've no problems with Watkins getting the penalty, I think it was worth the gamble.

[Olof's Beard]

He is a complex fella is Ollie, you can see he gets in his own head during these runs. But on the flip side, when he does score a couple, he is always capable of going on a little run.

It is really hard for us to cope with both him and Rogers losing all confidence at the same time, we need them both back in form and quickly.

[Skipper_The_Eyechild]

It is its own skill, goal scoring and even general technique aren't always a guide to someone being good at them. Merson never gave me confidence despite his ability, as an example.

Yep. Maradona and Messi no great shakes at them.

Messi's conversion rate is just under 78% which is pretty good tbf. Ronaldo's is 84.5% for comparison.

It's still lower than most of the elite players and makes him pretty average in that area, which you wouldn't expect from him. I know it used to be around an 80% chance of scoring, don't know if it still is.

[Smirker]

It is its own skill, goal scoring and even general technique aren't always a guide to someone being good at them. Merson never gave me confidence despite his ability, as an example.

Yep. Maradona and Messi no great shakes at them.

Messi's conversion rate is just under 78% which is pretty good tbf. Ronaldo's is 84.5% for comparison.

It's still lower than most of the elite players and makes him pretty average in that area, which you wouldn't expect from him. I know it used to be around an 80% chance of scoring, don't know if it still is.

It's above van Nistelrooy (75%) and almost exactly the same as Thierry Henry's (77.8%)

Maradona's was 93.5% btw 

[Skipper_The_Eyechild]

It may be above those, but it's still lower than a fuck load of players, even the likes of Danny Murphy. It just shows that it is a specific skill in of itself.

[The Edge]

Flipside if I was ever watching a game and Julian Dicks took one I expected him to score, and he was hardly blessed with skills or technique.

For that same reason I think Matty Cash might be a good option. He can really hit a ball hard.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

The poor penalty aside, it was refreshing (and long overdue) to see us return to feeding Watkins the type of ball he thrives on. He looked a completely different player and was more involved in those 30 minutes than he has been in all the games combined this season. More of that and he'll soon end his goal famine.

[PaulWinch again]

Yeah agree with that.

[paul_e]

The poor penalty aside, it was refreshing (and long overdue) to see us return to feeding Watkins the type of ball he thrives on. He looked a completely different player and was more involved in those 30 minutes than he has been in all the games combined this season. More of that and he'll soon end his goal famine.

I agree completely. The penalty miss is going to be what people remember but he was involved in a lot more than he has been, his movement was good and he was a pest for defenders. I think he's getting there, just a shitter that he bottled the penalty because he really needed the boost from it.

I wish he'd just smashed it though.