Manchester United's terrible Penalty Shootout Record

[Classical Mechanic]

I think it's worth taking a closer look at our terrible penalty shootout record since 2008/09, we've lost 7/8 competed in:

In the 2008/09 season we lost 4:2 on pens to Everton in the FA Cup semi final, the keeper that day was Ben Foster, he saved 0 penalties (Cahill missed one for Everton). Berbatov and Ferdinand missed our penalties.

In 09/10 Community Shield we lost 4:1 on penalties. Ben Foster was the goalkeeper and saved 0 penalties. Giggs and Evra missed our penalties.

In the 13/14 season we lost 2:1 on pens in the League Cup semi final to Sunderland. Amazingly only 3 of 10 penalties were scored by both sides. DDG was the keeper and saved 2. Welbeck, Januzaj, Jones and Rafael failed for us.

In the 15/16 season we lost 3:1 on pens in the 4th round of the League Cup to Middlesborough. Romero was the keeper and saved 0 penalties. Rooney, Carrick and Young missed for us.

In the 18/19 season we lost 8:7 on pens to Derby County in the FA Cup. Lee Grant was in goal after Romero was sent off. He saved 0 penalties. Phil Jones missed his penalty.

In the 19/20 season we beat Rochdale 5:4 on penalties. Romero was in goal and saved 1 penalty.

In the 20/21 season we lost to Villareal in the Europa League final 11:10. DDG was in goal and saved 0 penalties. DDG missed his penalty to lose the tie.

In the 21/22 season we lost to Middlesbrough in the FA Cup 4th round and lost 7:8 on penalties. Henderson was in goal and saved 0 penalties. Elanga missed he penalty to lose the tie.

Over the course of those shootouts we've faced 53 penalties and saved 3 so a save percentage of 6%. Well under the approx 18% of penalties that are saved on average in football.

 

[Ladron de redcafe]

That's a pretty poor record in recent years. I also read that United have nevet won a penalty shootout in the FA cup, which is staggering.

 

[Ixion]

Watching Henderson last night it could just as easily have been De Gea in the Europa Final, their players didnt look phased at all (he should have gotten to that 1 that went under him though).

I think the commentator said we won the toss and decided to go second which I think happened back in the Europa League final too?

 

[Classical Mechanic]

Watching Henderson last night it could just as easily have been De Gea in the Europa Final, their players didnt look phased at all (he should have gotten to that 1 that went under him though).

I think the commentator said we won the toss and decided to go second which I think happened back in the Europa League final too?

If so that's completely nuts. Especially when it comes to sudden death going second puts more pressure on the players. I think the team that take penalties first win 60% of the time.

 

[Dan]

I always feel that a short run up is more likely to result in a penalty miss.

 

[Revan]

Penalties are not gambling, we are just shit at it.

The fact that we chose to go second yesterday, after going last year shows how stupid players we have.

 

[Judas]

After the EL it is baffling we chose to go second again.

 

[UnitedWA]

In which segment are we good? It's easier to count goods than zillion bad things in United...

 

[OnlyTwoDaSilvas]

Did we choose to go 2nd? I just assumed we lost the toss, so they opted for 1st kick and we chose the Stretford End. Was that not the case?

 

[Yagami]

Could have been even worse if not for Viva John Terry

it's no wonder my stomach churns when I see penalties. United at club, England at international

 

[Ixion]

Did we choose to go 2nd? I just assumed we lost the toss, so they opted for 1st kick and we chose the Stretford End. Was that not the case?

I think the commentator on ITV said we won the toss and elected to shoot into the Stretford End but someone would have to back me up on that

 

[Wilt]

Utd taking penalties is not so much the problem.

Saving penalties is the problem!

 

[ShinjiNinja26]

Just highlights the lack of bottle running through the squad. Too many serial losers who don’t know how to win.

 

[OnlyTwoDaSilvas]

I think the commentator on ITV said we won the toss and elected to shoot into the Stretford End but someone would have to back me up on that

It wouldn't surprise me, but surely the players and the coaches are aware of the clear advantage of kicking first. It would be beyond amateurish if they actively decided to go against that.

 

[Speako]

It goes back even further, we’ve always been terrible at them. I remember us losing against Videoton in ‘85, Southampton in the cup in ‘92 when Giggs did keepy ups all the way to us at the Stretford end, then missed. The Cup against Arsenal in ‘05. We get to pens , I presume we’re beaten.

 

[RomfordRed75]

Taking penalties is not the problem, we've scored 18 of our last 20 in shootouts. Unfortunately we've conceded 20!

 

[Lentwood]

On the flip-side of that, in our last two shootouts we have scored 10 and then 7 consecutive penalties.

Harsh but you have to question the goalkeeping. Both seem to want to wait that extra second, but that's a net-negative tactic since only the very best penalty takers have the nerve and composure to wait for the GK to go and roll the ball the other way.

Against a team like Boro, especially as they get lower down the order, pick a corner and throw yourself at it

 

[norm87cro]

Another depressing thread. Oh well...
Penalties are luck to a certain degree. That argument went to shit once Henderson could not save a single shot out of the first 5

 

[Lentwood]

Taking penalties is not the problem, we've scored 18 of our last 20 in shootouts. Unfortunately we've conceded 20!

Beat me to it by a second

 

[norm87cro]

Could have been even worse if not for Viva John Terry

it's no wonder my stomach churns when I see penalties. United at club, England at international

Thanks for reminding this sorry lot that we actually won the most important penalty shoot out in the clubs
history

 

[Wilt]

Have a look at De Gea‘s penalty saving record before discussing how bad we are at taking them.

 

[Ixion]

Henderson's efforts were quite weak, he didn't fully dive for anything he mostly just dropped to his knee.

 

[OnlyTwoDaSilvas]

Henderson's efforts were quite weak, he didn't fully dive for anything he mostly just dropped to his knee.

He did get close to one early on, and it just bobbled under him. After that I was convinced he would stop one. But he seemed to barely dive after that one. Bizarre approach.

 

[AshRK]

Maybe we used all our luck against Chelsea in the 2008 CL final.

 

[norm87cro]

Maybe we used all our luck against Chelsea in the 2008 CL final.

Maybe. But quite frankly we should have been 3 0 up in the first half and their goal came after a VDS slip on that very same pitch Terry slipped as well

 

[FrankDrebin]

Utd taking penalties is not so much the problem.

Saving penalties is the problem!

This here ^

 

[sebsheep]

In the 13/14 season we lost 2:1 on pens in the League Cup semi final to Sunderland. Amazingly only 3 of 10 penalties were scored by both sides. DDG was the keeper and saved 2. Welbeck, Januzaj, Jones and Rafael failed for us.

That was one of the worse penalty shoot-outs I remember ever watching.

 

[Irrational.]

We’re too arrogant to prepare for them.

 

[Classical Mechanic]

We’re too arrogant to prepare for them.

We did in the EL final but DDG didn't follow the instructions. I wonder if we bothered to prepare for last night's shootout.

 

[siw2007]

I remember losing to Derby and Boro in the last 6 years on penalty shootouts but only really remember more explicitly the final and last nights. The taking of the penalties doesn’t seem to be a problem, I think 10? and 7 are actually strong numbers and would have taken them anyway. It’s the saving of them which is proving to be problematic, and I also want to say that De Gea and Deano have not really looked like saving any of them apart from one last night, which is worrying.

 

[Robin]

Did we choose to go 2nd? I just assumed we lost the toss, so they opted for 1st kick and we chose the Stretford End. Was that not the case?

I think you have two toss ups, the first to decide which end to kick into which I am assuming we won and picked the Stretty , and then the second toss to see who has the choice of going first or second. I am sure whoever wins that toss would take the first kick as you have the advantage so Boro won that toss I’m guessing.

 

[Offside]

This is another one of those things that feels like payback given that we had one of the most glorious penalty shootout victories in history.

 

[golden_blunder]

Did Fred take one? I don’t recall

 

[2 man midfield]

I remember thinking when the commentator said we won the toss and chose to kick second, what the feck are we doing? Have we learnt nothing from losing the Europa league?

 

[Sandikan]

We’re too arrogant to prepare for them.

In fairness we did take some brilliant ones and it was only the 8th one that was missed by a mid.
Their keeper despite being massive didn't come close to saving any.

 

[Sandikan]

Did Fred take one? I don’t recall

Yep. Early on.

We missed number 8 so only had Jonesy, Shaw and the keeper to go.

 

[Varane around town]

In recent years we don't seem to have that much of a problem scoring penalties. For one reason or another our 'Keepers just don't save them.

 

[noodlehair]

When you score 7 penalties in a row and lose it isn't the penalty takers who have fecked up.

Middlesbrough could have taken penalties all night and not missed. Henderson every single time either went way too early or didn't dive at all. Not a single one where he made the player taking it have to think or gamble. Means if it's on target its pretyt much a guaranteed goal and its also less likely to be off target since there's no pressure on the player to put any extra power behind it.

Their keeper wasn't great but at least he was standing his ground and then diving after the kick taker had committed so our players knew if they didn't put it in the corner it had a half chance of being saved.

For their players it was just either pass it in the side Henderson hasn't already obviously committed to, or pass it in either side because he's too busy jumping about to be able to dive in time.

 

[Amir]

It goes back even further, we’ve always been terrible at them. I remember us losing against Videoton in ‘85, Southampton in the cup in ‘92 when Giggs did keepy ups all the way to us at the Stretford end, then missed. The Cup against Arsenal in ‘05. We get to pens , I presume we’re beaten.

Yeah, we were never good at penalties. We just had a little good run with the 2008 CL final and then winning on penalties in the Community Shield and League cup final... And then it ended again.

 

[lsd]

We did not choose to go second so can we quit this? We won the toss to decide ends and we lost the toss to decide who takes first.

As for our record is pretty obvious where the problem is and it's saving them.

Or last two shootouts have went well into sudden death so we have no problem scoring them but at some point it is inevitable we will miss one as there is never any hope that we would save one.

The only way we could win a shootout is if the other team missed the target and that won't happen when they face a goalkeeper that repeatedly dives far too soon giving them a wide open space to put the ball in.

Either our keepers do not practice penalties or when it comes to a shootout they just ignore everything they do in training and just completely go to pieces