Who will take United's penalties this season?

Friday 10 September 2021 22:30

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer says he has two players who he’d ‘trust his life with’ to score penalties for Manchester United this season.

Bruno Fernandes has been the club’s penalty taker since he arrived in January 2020, missing only once from the spot which means his career record is now a remarkable 42 penalties scored from 45 attempts.

New signing Cristiano Ronaldo is also a prolific scorer of penalties, finding the back of the net on 139 occasions from 167 efforts.

To have two players with such stellar records is a pleasure for Solskjaer, who wouldn’t be drawn into giving a definitive answer on who will take penalties for United this season, but said it’ll be his decision either way.

Fernandes has missed only one penalty in a United shirt.

“I knew that question was going to come!” Ole said in his press conference ahead of Saturday’s match against Newcastle United.

“Of course, I’ve had a chat with the two of them. We’ve got two players there who I trust with my life to put a penalty away and that’s a great position to be in.

“They’ll know by the conversations we’ve had, and the conversations we have before games how we sort this and it’s going to be my decision what will happen and I think the two of them will just keep on doing what they do when they’re asked to take the penalties.”

We could see this plenty of times this season...

Much has been made of United’s ability to win penalties over the last 18 months and with several fast, fleet-footed players like Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho, Mason Greenwood and Anthony Martial, it’d be no surprise to see the Reds continue to be regularly awarded the opportunity to score from 12 yards.

Who steps up when that happens is yet to be seen but neither Fernandes nor Ronaldo will play every game this season and there’ll undoubtedly be a chance for them both to add to their season tallies from the spot.

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