Speaking on ESPN, Alejandro Moreno has been speaking about Mohamed Salah being Egypt’s fifth penalty taker in the African Cup of Nations and Bukayo Saka being in the same situation with England.
Egypt and England have both been on the wrong end of penalty shootouts in major international finals over the past 12 months, and both times, there was plenty of post-game discussion about the order of the penalty takers.
Indeed, it was hard to understand why a teenage Saka was asked to take the most pressure penalty in England’s history in the summer, while many questioned why Salah was put down as the fifth taker for his country as that eventually meant he was unable to participate in the shootout as Egypt had already lost before it was time for the fifth penalty.
Moreno has pointed out the double standards in terms of critiquing the fact that Salah was Egypt’s fifth taker, pointing towards the previous debacle with Saka as an example.
What’s been said?
Moreno gave his view on the matter.
“I’m going to throw a name at you, a name that may be close to your heart from the summer. Bukayo Saka, why was Saka taking that decisive penalty for England? You can’t have it both ways, you can’t criticise Salah for being fifth and then criticise a player like Saka for taking the deciding penalty for England. Here’s the thing, in the end, for a fifth penalty taker not to participate in the shootout, somebody has to have had a shocker, and Egypt had a shocker,” Moreno said.
No right answer
Moreno is absolutely right, you can’t criticise both of these decisions, and when it comes to a penalty shootout, there’s no right answer.
Just look at Italy at the Euros. They put their best penalty taker, Jorginho, as their fifth taker, and he missed, while England chose an inexperienced Saka who also missed.
Shootouts are a lottery, sometimes these tactics work, and sometimes they don’t.
Didier Drogba took the decisive penalty in the 2012 Champions League final for Chelsea, and that was seen as a masterstroke as he knew how to handle pressure situations, but just four years earlier, John Terry missed in the same situation, despite the fact he was famed for his nerves of steel.
Should Salah have taken a penalty earlier? Possibly, but that’s very easy to say in hindsight.
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