Petr Cech admits that his failure to stop any of the 15 penalties he’s faced since joining Arsenal is a real source of frustration.
The veteran keeper moved to the Gunners in June 2015 and has since seen everyone from Charlie Adam to Lionel Messi beat him from 12-yards. Last season alone, he conceded nine times following infringements in the box.
The 35-year-old has not actually stopped a penalty since October 2014, a situation that he hopes will change soon.
“It’s an amazing run, you have to say,” he told Sky Sports.
“I don’t like it at all obviously. Throughout my career, all the big trophies came through saving penalties [he stopped Arjen Robben in extra-time of the 2012 Champions League final] and suddenly you have a run where you don’t save a penalty for such a long time.
“It’s very frustrating for a goalkeeper because I’m not used to conceding penalties.
“But you need to carry on your preparation and I believe the day will come where everything is reversed. It will happen.”
Ahead of Tuesday’s trip to relegation-threatened Swansea City, Cech also reflected on Arsenal’s poor Premier League form this season.
“We are a club that belongs in the Champions League, so obviously you don’t want to spend years outside of the Champions League spots.
“But every year the fight for the top four spots becomes harder and harder because the league is very competitive.
“Regardless of that, this season we have had so many games where we were not up to the standard we needed to be and this is something we need to address for the rest of the season.
“We should have far more points than we have at this moment.”
Cech dives a bit early in my opinion.
Typical foreigner.
Mark your territory Cech before each pen.
You can do what Jens would do and pee on each post before the pen is taken to show the taker who’s boss.
🙂
Lol
I admire his honesty but his inability to save penalties is so annoying. It’s probably the only real weakness he has.
Isn’t his near post a weakness? I’d say it is a bigger weakness than his ability to save penalties.
He needs to stop jumping around trying to put them off and react to the shot a bit more.
Stand in the middle of the goal and then when the striker kicks the ball… don’t jump out of the way.
Honestly most of the penos he concedes go in the middle.
I always wondered why more keepers don’t do this. If a shot goes in one of the 4 corners, you aren’t saving it anyway so you might as well cover what you can without guessing.
I’m still a Cech fan, but it’s hard not to look at what Szcz is doing at Juve with a dollop of envy.
Over a quarter of the spot kicks go up the middle. Pretend to be on the move, stay put and react. He’ll either get one up the middle, or be able to get poor ones just off the middle.
He might as well, I mean he dives the wrong way nearly EVERY time. The “pick a side and dive so it looks like you’re trying” isn’t working.
When I blast penalties down the middle, the keeper invariably stands there and gratefully scoops it up but in professional football that almost never seems to happen. Either it’s all in the eyes or keepers are told to always dive to one side.
He simply needs to stay in the middle of the goal and that would save at least 10%. Most takers must know he is going to fidget around before simply jumping out of the way.
Bring Bob Wilson or David Seaman in for a session or two, because they had a technique that worked quite well.
At least it will force subsequent takers to actually think about where they want to play the ball. Penalties that go in the sides have a possibility of going wide or hitting the bar. Stay in the middle, save a few, see the indecision in the takers eyes.
Yes. i know i’m a world class goalkeeping coach
He would have higher chance if saving some if he stood than dive to the right or left given the propensity of the penalty takers to go down the middle.
I have a theory that before Cech left Chelsea, Mourinho creapt into the dressing room and implanted an evil computer chip in the big man’s hat. It means that wherever the ball goes after a penalty kick, he’s forced to dive in the opposite direction. Either that, or Mourinho goes all like The Hood in Thunderbirds and hypnotised him, like some kind of evil puppet bastard.
evil puppet MASTER bastard
evil puppet master bater
Mourinho is not that good.
Why are you all repeating what i said when someone said it?
Have you never heard football punditry before?
That’s football, innit?
That’s hit it on the head, right there.
If the defenders are much more careful in the box, we will actually face less penalty. I believe in a cup final there is probability of stopping one of them. Although i dont like penalties to decide the outcome of cup finals….. It is always scary
If referees are less biased in their decision making it would help too. at least half of those penalties are “controversial”
I don’t think his inability to save PK is peculiar to his time at Arsenal. At Chelsea he was equally as bad as I remembered telling my Man U supporting friend that they will win the UCL final because Cech is the worst GK I’ve ever seen when it comes Pk then he went and save from CR7
A lot of people saying he should stay in the middle. Yes, he might save one, however penalty takers will cotton on pretty quickly and just put it in the corner. More and more penalty takers are waiting for the keepers to move hence more pens going down the middle or just off centre. I’m no expert, but I think leaping later might be more effective. You’re never going to get the ones right in the corner, its the ones just off centre to either side to the keeper where you’re putting doubt in the taker’s mind you should be… Read more »
Staying in the middle puts the striker under pressure. The fattest part of the goal is the middle and you know that a keeper with a big wing span like cech has, will get to a good half of the goal without diving. this means that if he stays put the striker must put the ball in the 25% at either post. Because of cechs size you would fancy him to get to a post if a shot is tamely struck so the ball must be hit firmly… then you have a bit of a lottery – nerve versus technique.… Read more »
If a bit of variety is needed, hell, just stay put 50% of the time, 50% try to read a side and dive. It’ll make it much harder for penalty takers to read what he’s doing. Make them guess too.
He’s a big bloke so if he stays in the middle and jumps forward slightly (just before the kick is taken)then makes his dive, he may stand a better chance as he occupies a lot more space than say Ospina.
Its all about making yourself as big as possible.
Smaller keepers like Ospina rely more on reactions. In that, Ospina is better.
. . . ‘we have had so many games where we were not up to the standard we needed to be and this is something we need to address for the rest of the season . . .’
We’re ready when you are Pete
Quite amusing to read some of the ‘expert’ advice on here about how to save a pen.
I’m sure Cech’s reading them going, ‘ah, so that’s where I’m going wrong’.
Personally I like his honesty about the situation and the obvious solution is not to give penalties away, which are normally the result of poor defensive positioning.
However Cech’s reaction times are not going to improve as he gets older and you have to wonder if we can find someone better/younger in the transfer market.
Genuine good guy and was a great keeper for chelshit. A new keeper this summer a must.
Cech’s own approach doth not butter any parsnips.
If people in arsenal just listened to us ‘experts’ they would have
a/ signed alexis and ozil up last summer
b/ signed mkitharian in 2012
c/ sold walcott in 2010
d/ won the league
e/ played a back 3 earlier before returning to a back 4 earlier
f/ gotten joel campbell out while they still could
g/ appointed owen coyle as manager
No shit Sherlock
Kind of like when Spunky had a dodgy shoulder and never dived that way (cant remember if it was left or right) and got found out pretty damn quick. Ooooospina and Martinez are better at pens. Cech the chav will never get better he is a hasbeen.
Right now he is in some absurd patch when he just can’t save penalty. That is in his head and he needs to save one. We should support him and be optimistic but what we do we criticize him. He is not that worse keeper then then he was in Chelsea. Watch some of his games back then and you will see that he let in the same kind of goals. That is his goalkeeping style. He saves us regulary but because of your hate you don’t see that. And you never appreciate how good he is when it comes… Read more »
Diving before the shot is taken gives the taker an advantage and once you dive, you can’t return.
this guy is probably one of the biggest diappointment of the last 5 years.
Ask Jens. Simples.
embarrassing