When Norwich City goalkeeper Tim Krul was loosely linked with a move to Manchester United, the usual critics scoffed and mocked at yet another hilarious potential new signing. Following on from Marko Arnautovic and Adrien Rabiot, the Dutchman was just the latest joke figure to be linked with the Red Devils.
But signing a penalty saving expert isn’t just sensible, it’s almost a necessity for every big club that can afford it in the modern game. For United in particular, a Krul-like signing would make perfect sense for those tense cup competitions or knockout ties.
If they had Krul to bring off the bench for the Europa League final, they would have won the entire competition. Instead we were put through the misery of watching both David de Gea and Geronimo Rulli grasp at thin air for what felt like an hour. That would have delivered that all-important trophy for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and perhaps completely changed the way his time at the club panned out.
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Last season, United were dumped out of the FA Cup by Middlesbrough on penalties at Old Trafford in the fourth round. A win there would have kept their trophy hunt alive for a little while longer and in these cup competitions, it makes perfect sense to have a penalty-saving expert involved.
This isn’t a Manchester United specific issue, but any top six side should be looking at investing in a keeper just to save penalties. This argument is only strengthened when you consider that teams are now allowed to make five substitutions rather than the traditional three. Before it was considered to be somewhat of a negative factor to ‘waste’ one of your subs on the goalkeeper position, but now managers have the freedom to change four outfielders as well as their man between the sticks.
We’ve seen how effective this has been before with Krul himself in the 2014 World Cup. He was called off the bench for the penalty shootout in the quarter-final against Costa Rica by Louis van Gaal, and it was a decision that paid off as he saved two crucial penalties to send his team through. In the semi-final, the manager decided not to repeat the trick, instead using his last sub on an outfield player in extra-time. It was a decision that he would regret as Jasper Cillessen failed to save any of Argentina’s spot-kicks, as Lionel Messi and co progressed to the final.
The world of football is becoming increasingly more position-specific. Gone are the days where Dion Dublin and Chris Sutton would play centre-forward one week and centre-half the next. Now you have false nines, inverted full-backs and overlapping centre-backs. Each player on that pitch has a minutely specific role to play, so why can’t it be the same for a goalkeeper?
Krul has proved himself to be a decent Premier League goalkeeper over his career, but when it comes to penalties, there aren’t many better anywhere in the world. Think of this like an NFL kicker. When it comes to booting the ball over the posts, he comes on, does his business, and walks off again. Goalkeepers, if you can find the right ones, can fulfil exactly this role and dramatically increase the odds of your team progressing from a tie.
Penalties are definitely not a lottery. Having the best skills based players both taking the penalties, and saving them, will tip the odds much further in your favour. We aren’t quite at the stage where outfield players can just be penalty experts, but for second or third-choice goalkeepers, why on earth not?
The Kepa Arrizabalaga substitution shambles in the 2019 Carabao Cup final perhaps offers a slight word of warning for any clubs looking to heed this advice. But if you have a penalty specific goalkeeper that always comes on and the first-choice knows he will be substituted ahead of the game, that scenario is unlikely to be repeated.
The game has changed. The rules have changed. The role of a substitute has changed. It’s time to get serious about saving penalties.
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