Giggs admits to a spot of bother
RYAN Giggs has admitted Bruno Fernandes and Paul Pogba are far more confident penalty takers than he was at United.
The Reds legend scored five spot kicks during his trophy-laden career at Old Trafford.
But Giggs, who is now Wales manager, revealed he never had the confidence to play mind games with the goalkeeper, instead focusing solely on his own technique.
He stated: “You know you see players looking at the goalkeeper? Eden Hazard I mean he’s amazing, he just goes up so slowly and even Bruno Fernandes now with a little hop. I could never do that. My philosophy was: ‘I’m putting it low into the corner even if the goalkeeper goes the right way, he’s not going to save it if I execute it right’. That was my philosophy, so it doesn’t matter if he went the right way or not. If I do low, sidenetting, he shouldn’t be able to save it.
“That was my philosophy, rather than looking at the goalkeeper, trying to play mind games and having the confidence which Hazard and Bruno Fernandes [have]. Pogba did for a while that slow run up. I could never do that.”
Giggs scored from the spot in a tense penalty shoot-out to help United win the Champions League against Chelsea in Moscow in 2008.
However, he was a long way down the list and Giggs says it is because at the time there were some extremely talented spot-kick specialists at the club.
He said: “We had [Carlos] Tevez, Cristiano - who missed – Michael Carrick, Owen Hargreaves - obviously with his German background at Bayern he was never going to miss.
“We had some penalty takers who would be penalty takers in open play.”