Do you use penalty specialists?

I'm currently managing AFC Wimbledon in League 2, and I only seem to score about 50% of my penalties, because the best penalty taker in my team has penalty taking 9. Do you think i should invest in a player who's maybe a little worse in other departments, but is good enough to score at least 80% of penalty kicks, or not bother and just hope for the best?

i wouldnt bother and hope for the best, but when replaceing a player if you sell maybe look at that as a key area for the player you look to buy.

cool, thanks for responding so quickly

i use my goalkeeper. he hasn't missed one out of a whole 2 i've had this season.

I had a shootout last night. Arranged all my players based on the penalty taking attribute... and the first three missed. Opponents scored all theirs so that was it. Oops.

yes where possible.

I keep in mind Composure and finishing. Sometimes a player with high composure but low penalty stat can still bang one in.

Composure, Finishing, Technique and Concentration are other factors you should consider when picking your penalty taker. Currently, my Pen taker has a Pen rating of 12. There are 7 other players in my club who have >12. I genuinely can't remember the last time he missed a pen.

I am pretty sure that the game calculates a penalty during a game and a penalty during a penalty shoot-out differently.

My GK takes all my penalties, (he has scored 106 career goals so I have had a few to judge this on).

His penalty attribute was on 4 at the start and has been up as high as 6 I think but never higher.

Hit free-kick rating started on 7 and is still 7.

He's very good with free-kicks, (he's scored a hat-trick of free-kicks in a match before), but he is only average at penalties.

I would say that he converts about 75% of his taken penalties, (during a game), but that this drops to somethng close to 20-30% if we are talking only about pelaties taken during penalty shoot-outs.

Now it could be that he is a "bottler" and has hidden stats that don't make him good in these situations, but his performance in consistantly performing well in goals by savinbg penalties during shoot-outs would seem to say this is not the case.

Anyway, I completely back up NepentheZ's comment about other factors being important and I would add "bravery" into the mix. Call it "bottle".

Composure, composure, composure.

When selecting for a shootout, I make sure that I have my two most composed players sitting #4 and #5, for when the pressure is really on .. with other composed players sitting #1 and #6.

To the original question, I don't think I'd look at it as worth finding yourself a penalty-taking expert, unless you are missing a lot of penalties over the course of a season.

However, at that level, a free-kick expert can be a lethal addition, and a solid corner-taker is a must in my opinion. Ideally, you can find a single player who performs on all three.

The composure rating for my GK is 3;).

He still tucked away 106 goals.

For the love of all that is holy can someone from SI just step in and say what matters (not including hidden stuff). Surely it's no big deal to just tell us.

Or is the ambiguity your way of bridging the gap between the necessity for attributes from a gaming standpoint and how they don't exist in real life and observation is what counts?

Any researchers want to shed some light on this? Are you given guidelines? Do you give a good penalty taker a high penalty attribute without any others involved? If others do come into play then how do you balance that with the CA constraints and the effect in match?

And if any SI people do decide to respond can you clear up other set piece issues as well e.g. crossing affects the quality of corners/free kicks. It just seems unnecessary that people are speculating as to what matters when it shouldn't be that way (unless of course people on here are making false assumptions based on coincidental correlations about what matters and it is as the manual says).

And if all these things do matter then introduce a mechanic that allows us to understand. You could have the scouts report on this under certain combinations

Player A is generally a good penalty taker but his lack of composure means he sometimes misses when the pressure is on

Player B can hit the back of the net with excellent accuracy but his delivery to team mates in the box is sometimes lacking

The second one may not be as explicit as the first but at least it allows us to learn by comparison. And to be honest aren't most free kick takers good free kick takers whether it's a direct shot or a cross? Any one have any real life examples that spring to mind who can't do both to a similar level?

To account for the player not actually taking any set pieces (more to do with penalties) while being scouted you could incorporate a little text string relating to the scout not only watching in real life but also on tape, or finding this info via talking to someone in his network who has seen the player in question regularly.

Admittedly that's more of a big club scenario but I'll leave it up to any lower league fans with insider knowledge who play LLM style to flame me and suggest different approaches when budgetary constraints or lack of video evidence come into play.

Admittedly that's more of a big club scenario but I'll leave it up to any lower league fans with insider knowledge who play LLM style to flame me and suggest different approaches when budgetary constraints or lack of video evidence come into play.

Player A has less than average ability at free-kicks. He can generally get it into the box but your guess is as good as mine whether it will be nicely curled away from the keeper or hammered in low like an out of control scud.

Player B is awful at free-kicks. He has to concentrate so much on not falling over when he takes them, that the ball often doesn't go anywhere near the intended target.

Is that the sort of thing you meant:D?

Spot on

I'm currently managing AFC Wimbledon in League 2, and I only seem to score about 50% of my penalties, because the best penalty taker in my team has penalty taking 9. Do you think i should invest in a player who's maybe a little worse in other departments, but is good enough to score at least 80% of penalty kicks, or not bother and just hope for the best?

You might wan't to invest in some decent defenders first, considering you conceed about 10 goals a game...

Don't watch your players take penalties. That dude with Penalty Taking of 3 always scores when I don't stare at him

I keep in mind Composure and finishing. Sometimes a player with high composure but low penalty stat can still bang one in.

Concentration and decisions are also important!

Theres a hidden stat called 'pressure' which I think might be the hidden attribute for penalties.

i tend to have Kuyt sitting on the bench and if it gets to the 115th minute and it really doesn't look like the deadline is going to be broken i bring him on for my worst penalty taker (regardless of position) I have players that can move around easily (my DM can play CB, my AMR can play DM, and Kuyt can play AMR).

That way I have 5 decent penalty takers when the dreaded penalty shootout commences. Worked for me against Chelsea in ECC Semis and Arsenal in the final. Viva La Liverpool FC!! 66 games without a loss and growing!!

Theres a hidden stat called 'pressure' which I think might be the hidden attribute for penalties.

I always thought that 'pressure' was refering to the amount of pressure that is on the individual to become a quality player. Wither it's from his home country or his managers.