Fortunately for Manchester United fans, Wayne Rooney’s injury time penalty miss against Liverpool didn’t affect the outcome of the game.
But it won’t fill them with confidence to learn that, statistically, the United captain is one of the worst regular penalty takers in Premier League history.
Some clever clogs over at The Mirror has crunched the numbers on all the regular penalty takers (over 20 attempts) since the inception of the Premier League and the results are damning for Rooney.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RaNGF8q7XY
Rooney has scored just 18 of the 26 spot kicks he has taken in the league which gives him a success rate of 69%.
That leaves the striker in the bottom three of all time regulars from the penalty spot with former United players Teddy Sheringham (68%) and Michael Owen (67%) the only players behind him.
While those percentages may not sound too terrible, they’re pretty poor when you compare them to the success statistics of the top three of Matt Le Tissier (96%), Thierry Henry (92%) and Peter Beardsley (90%).
Phil Jones is not unknown to take a cheeky corner kick or two at Old Trafford but LVG will hardly bestow the honour of chief penalty-taker on the defender, will he?
