9 - Luis Suárez - v1

[Ubermensch]

[youtube]EaGkfRrCcvY[/youtube]

Gave me goosebumps from this youtuber again. Everyone loves our football should share whatever he makes.

 

[Neeraj]

I feel it's completely obvious he should be taking penaldos, don't think it's going to ever happen due to the ridiculous non footballing consequences enrique and messi will have to face if Suarez were to become first choice penaldo taker.

 

[Sea_of_Frost]

I feel it's completely obvious he should be taking penaldos, don't think it's going to ever happen due to the ridiculous non footballing consequences enrique and messi will have to face if Suarez were to become first choice penaldo taker.

Elaborate on why he should take them.

 

[Neeraj]

Elaborate on why he should take them.

We know he's a great finisher; he's a proper no. 9; the few penalties that we have seen him take, looked assured and confident; Messi isn't a bad penalty taker as such, but you do get nervy when he steps up nowadays, no doubt he isn't quite as confident as he used to be; don't like Neymar's extravagant penalty run ups, they are a bit hit and miss IMO - just run up and bang it home - most of the best penalty takers have had this style.

 

[Darko]

Elaborate on why he should take them.

Because he is the best player in the club at scoring penalties.

 

[Sea_of_Frost]

We know he's a great finisher; he's a proper no. 9; the few penalties that we have seen him take, looked assured and confident; Messi isn't a bad penalty taker as such, but you do get nervy when he steps up nowadays, no doubt he isn't quite as confident as he used to be; don't like Neymar's extravagant penalty run ups, they are a bit hit and miss IMO - just run up and bang it home - most of the best penalty takers have had this style.

A great finisher doesn't mean he's a good penalty taker. Using that very logic, Messi is a great penalty taker.

A prerequisite for a No. 9 isn't taking penalties. A proper No. 9 is a lethal finisher, and a pain for defenders through movement and constant pressure, atleast in Barcelona.

Because he is the best player in the club at scoring penalties.

Again, please explain how. I mean, we don't just look at the meagre sample size of penalties of a player in Barcelona to justify that they should be a penalty taker. That's mere madness statistically. I mean using that type of logic means that Xavi is a great penalty taker with a 100% conversion rate.
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Suarez in his career has taken 33 penalties.
Scored 27.
Missed 6.

So, that's an 81.8% conversion rate.

Messi in his career has taken 82 penalties.
Scored 65.
Missed 17.

So, there's an 79.2% conversion rate.

Now, note the fact that Messi has taken WAY more penalties than Suarez, and the only time Suarez has been a regular penalty taker was back in 2009-10, when he was playing for Ajax. Suarez hasn't been a club's penalty taker since Ajax.

I fail to see how you can prove it properly to me that Suarez should take penalties. He isn't definitely that much better than Messi in taking penalties, taking into account that in the same time he has taken way less penalties. And this doesn't even take into account how the dressing room would blow up due to this undue tension.
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All in all, I'm not here trying to be a Messi fanboy, trying to prove that he's the best blah blah. I'm just saying that they both aren't that great at penalties. And between them, Messi should take them due to his experience, and the fact that he has the balls to take the big penalties after the Chelsea debacle. (watch his penalties with Argentina for example.)

If there is someone significantly better than either of them, I'd understand asking that person to be the penalty taker of the team. But there isn't anyone, is there?

 

[BarcaJack]

BTW Some defenders are excellent penalty takers. David Luiz among them I suppose.

 

[Darko]

Suarez just looks confident and bangs them in with power, making it impossible for the keeper, and 4 out of 6 of his penalty misses were in 2009 (while Messi has 4 in 2015).
He's matured and is now a much better player.
Messi's body language says it all, he's relieved when he scores a penalty (perhaps bad memories of the Chelsea game still haunt him) and maybe it's time to mix it up a bit.

 

[FCBarca]

Love, love, love

[youtube]YJocBdRIRhM[/youtube]

 

[Neymessi]

I remember when we used to wonder if aguero would be a better fit than suarez.Has suarez even been injured ever since he joined us?In that period aguero has been injured a hell of a lot.

 

[barcafan161]

I remember when we used to wonder if aguero would be a better fit than suarez.Has suarez even been injured ever since he joined us?In that period aguero has been injured a hell of a lot.

Dude gets hurt getting changed

 

[10Rivaldo]

I remember when we used to wonder if aguero would be a better fit than suarez.Has suarez even been injured ever since he joined us?In that period aguero has been injured a hell of a lot.

He got injured during the second leg vs Bayern last season and missed a couple league games. I think that was the first time he's ever missed a league game due to injury in his entire career, someone correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[Neeraj]

A great finisher doesn't mean he's a good penalty taker. Using that very logic, Messi is a great penalty taker.

A prerequisite for a No. 9 isn't taking penalties. A proper No. 9 is a lethal finisher, and a pain for defenders through movement and constant pressure, atleast in Barcelona.



Again, please explain how. I mean, we don't just look at the meagre sample size of penalties of a player in Barcelona to justify that they should be a penalty taker. That's mere madness statistically. I mean using that type of logic means that Xavi is a great penalty taker with a 100% conversion rate.
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Suarez in his career has taken 33 penalties.
Scored 27.
Missed 6.

So, that's an 81.8% conversion rate.

Messi in his career has taken 82 penalties.
Scored 65.
Missed 17.

So, there's an 79.2% conversion rate.

Now, note the fact that Messi has taken WAY more penalties than Suarez, and the only time Suarez has been a regular penalty taker was back in 2009-10, when he was playing for Ajax. Suarez hasn't been a club's penalty taker since Ajax.

I fail to see how you can prove it properly to me that Suarez should take penalties. He isn't definitely that much better than Messi in taking penalties, taking into account that in the same time he has taken way less penalties. And this doesn't even take into account how the dressing room would blow up due to this undue tension.
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All in all, I'm not here trying to be a Messi fanboy, trying to prove that he's the best blah blah. I'm just saying that they both aren't that great at penalties. And between them, Messi should take them due to his experience, and the fact that he has the balls to take the big penalties after the Chelsea debacle. (watch his penalties with Argentina for example.)

If there is someone significantly better than either of them, I'd understand asking that person to be the penalty taker of the team. But there isn't anyone, is there?

Two main things required are confidence and ability. Suarez and Messi are both obviously skilful enough to take penalties; it's upto body language and confidence then - Suarez at the moment, as mentioned, runs up and bangs them in, keeper's got no chance; unless Suarez himself misses the target. Messi seems a bit more circumspect (as anyone would after missing penalties recently), which also gives a confidence boost to the opposition keeper. It's so much more than just numbers, which you seemed to have tried to use to dismiss the argument.

 

[TornAndFrayed]

Two main things required are confidence and ability. Suarez and Messi are both obviously skilful enough to take penalties; it's upto body language and confidence then - Suarez at the moment, as mentioned, runs up and bangs them in, keeper's got no chance; unless Suarez himself misses the target. Messi seems a bit more circumspect (as anyone would after missing penalties recently), which also gives a confidence boost to the opposition keeper. It's so much more than just numbers, which you seemed to have tried to use to dismiss the argument.

This.
But in the exact same way, relieving Messi (and neymar who is definitely the back up) of penalty duty would also definitely have a negative impact.
Atm I too would like to see Suarez take them, but considering the cons, I wouldn't change the order.

 

[Sea_of_Frost]

Two main things required are confidence and ability. Suarez and Messi are both obviously skilful enough to take penalties; it's upto body language and confidence then - Suarez at the moment, as mentioned, runs up and bangs them in, keeper's got no chance; unless Suarez himself misses the target. Messi seems a bit more circumspect (as anyone would after missing penalties recently), which also gives a confidence boost to the opposition keeper. It's so much more than just numbers, which you seemed to have tried to use to dismiss the argument.

Again, I'm curious as to how teams should take penalties through this kind of logic.
So we take whoever is most confident to take the penalties?

I mean, how on earth are you so sure that Suarez is more or less confident that Messi at any given time (it's easy to say this only for this isolated point in time). There's no accurate way to say that. Lets consider your hypothetical situation anyway. Suarez is now the team penalty taker. Suarez stays at this very WC level, but Messi again starts on his insane 2012 (or second half of 14/15) form. You think either of them lack confidence now? How will the penalty situation change now? You can't say that Suarez/Messi is more or less confident if it is already accepted that they are a similar skill level.

The only reason this debate has come along is because Messi was injured. Suarez has only taken 2 penalties for Barcelona. Neymar himself who you say isn't that great of a penalty taker went on quite a long run of scoring his penalties before missing a few.

I mean, if you're looking at a very small number of penalties of a player (that too which he scored), it's going to look as if he's a perfect penalty taker.

Also, I'm not trying to make an argument solely based on statistics, it is you who simply dismiss statistics.