Mohamed Salah's Perfect Penalty Placement

Mohamed Salah scored a penalty to give Liverpool the lead against Chelsea. Data shows the difficulty his spot kicks must present to opposition analysts.

Mohamed Salah gave Liverpool the lead from the penalty spot in their 2-1 win over Chelsea last weekend. How confident were you that he’d score?

His record for the Reds suggests you should feel supremely calm when he steps up from 12 yards. Salah’s success rate has been 83.3 per cent for the club, with 35 converted from 42 attempts; only one of the other four men to take at least 40 for Liverpool has been better, with Jan Mølby tucking away 42 of his 45 penalties.

The 32-year-old might have won a penalty himself, prior to Curtis Jones being fouled by Levi Colwill. But after winning six league spot kicks across his first two years with the Reds, Salah has only won six in the five-plus seasons since. The Liverpool winger has had almost 500 touches more than any other player in opposition penalty boxes in that time too, yet six men have been awarded more penalties.

As on Sunday, the Egyptian’s goals from the spot have usually been important, with only six scored with the Reds already two goals up in a game. If you can put one away in a Champions League final, you’re probably calm in any situation thereafter. Pressure be damned.

Salah has been more mortal in recent times, though. His impressive average is helped enormously by converting 17 in a row after missing his first for Liverpool. Since that run ended, the Reds’ number 11 has beaten goalkeepers 75 per cent of the time, with six misses from 24 attempts. It is below average, if hardly at a disastrous level. Equally, had Salah scored just once more in that spell, he’d be above the par line. The super human has perhaps become human at last.

Opta Analyst noted at the end of last season that the trend for success from the spot in the Premier League is rising. With goalkeepers now forced to keep a foot on the line and VARs picking up on any encroachment, the already-favourable balance of probability has been tipped further.

It is, however, now over two years since the review crew at Stockley Park last enforced a retake. Players learn new behaviour eventually. And although tweaks to the rules have given him an advantage, Salah does what he can to push that further through varying the placement of his penalties. He’s on a remarkable streak for not regularly repeating himself.