Marcus’ penalty style is so much better than Pog’s... but Ole is to blame for confusion MATT LE TISSIER
PENALTY-TAKER extraordinaire Matt Le Tissier has blasted Manchester United’s spot-kick shenanigans as “amateurish, schoolboy stuff”.
And the former Southampton and England star, who missed only one of 48 penalties in his professional career, insists manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer must take the blame.
All looked rosy on the penalty front for United when Marcus Rashford coolly dispatched their first of the season in the 4-0 victory against Chelsea.
But when they were awarded another one a week later against Wolves, Paul Pogba decided to take charge and duly saw his effort saved by Rui Patricio in a 1-1 draw.
Solskjaer caused a few raised eyebrows after the game when he claimed both players were designated penalty-takers.
Rashford returned to duties in their next outing – against Crystal Palace – but fluffed his lines, hitting the outside of a post as United went on to lose 2-1.
Le Tissier (right) said: “It does cause confusion if you have two nominated penalty-takers and you just go, ‘Well, let’s see who fancies it on the day’.
“That’s not professional, it’s amateurish, schoolboy stuff and that comes down to the manager.
“In that situation, the manager needs to be stronger and just go, ‘Right, you’re the best at penalties, you’re my penalty-taker. If you’re not on the pitch then he can take them, but up until that point, you take them’.
“We had a penalty competition in training to decide who was going to be taking penalties in matches and I won that. I was 20 when I became penalty-taker y-taker and there was never r any question when I was on the pitch, it was s my right and that was my job.”
Pogba has now ow missed four penalties in the e last year.
Le Tissier added: “Pogba’s s record is far worse than
Rashford’s.
“I was never overly keen on
Pogba’s run-up because it used d to take so long it became a bit of theatre and he wasn’t taking it seriously.
“It was all about trying to p promote him himself as s being the big s showman an and the big ‘Here I am’ without concentrating trating on the j job in hand. and.
“The way Rashford tak takes penalties alties is actually far better and, if I was the manager, he would ould be the designated penalty-taker. nalty-taker.