Only around 6 / 1,000 shots in the premier league create XG higher than a penalty (so Arsenal had 3/4). And the majority of fouls that lead to a penalty have less than a 10% chance of leading to a goal (including way too many non-deliberate handballs)
Penalties have actually been getting easier with VAR ensuring keepers stay on their lines and the new rules stopping the keepers distracting the taker.
I think it would make the game fairer and more exiting if penalties weren’t an almost guaranteed goal. So I came up with some ideas to reduce the impact of penalties:
- Require the fouled player to take the penalty.
- Offer indirect free kicks for non-deliberate handballs.
- Prohibit stuttered run-ups, making the kicker’s approach more predictable for goalkeepers.
- Move the penalty spot back.
- Use VAR to penalise diving more harshly
Let me know if you agree that penalties are too hard and if so how we could change them?
I’ve also explored more ideas in a new video, consider giving it a watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6elPY8ZvtI.
I would do free kicks inside the box for most penalties tbh. In a low-point-scoring sport where an entire tournament can be swung off one dubious handball, or one dubious foul where there was no actual danger on the goal, it just happened to happen inside a white line… penalties are so OP.
And I disagree with others that the original intentions of the game are sacred and should never be changed. The original game was written by hungover factory workers kicking pig skins at each other. Excuse them if they didn’t envisage Kane/Salah/Bruno/etc etc etc spending thousands of hours on the training field perfecting penalty techniques with the modern balls that we have today.