Is Aleksandar Mitrović a bad penalty taker?

With 81 minutes played of Fulham’s 0-0 draw at Molineux on Saturday, the visitor’s talisman was presented with a glorious opportunity to turn his side’s promising start to the Premier League season into an undeniably successful one.

After Wolves full-back Rayan Ait-Nouri had brought down Bobby Decordova-Reid within the confines of his own 18-yard box, Aleksandar Mitrović stepped up to take his second penalty of this embryonic top flight campaign.

Having confidently found the bottom right corner of Alisson’s net in the 2-2 draw against Liverpool just seven days previous, Mitrović looked well set to have a decisive impact for Fulham once more.

You could suggest that he actually was involved in the game’s defining moment, but not in the way he intended. The Serbian’s powerfully struck effort from the spot was telegraphed by José Sá as the Wolves goalkeeper saved with his torso after diving to his right.

A frustrating afternoon very nearly disintegrated into a mild disaster minutes later, as Mitrović was possibly fortunate to receive just a single yellow card after his late challenge on Morgan Gibbs-White was followed by a head-to-head altercation with the England youth international.

The penalty was by no means an embarrassingly poor attempt by the centre-forward, even if it did lack the finesse of his effort against Liverpool, but it did continue something of a trend in regards to his efforts from 12 yards.

Following Sá’s save at the weekend, Mitrović now has a record of 22 penalties scored from 31 attempts (not including shootouts). A success rate of 71% hardly rivals that of some of the Premier League’s most efficient spot-kick specialists such as Brentford’s Ivan Toney (96%) or Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah (85%), although it is more than respectable given a penalty currently has around a 76% chance of resulting in a goal.

An aspect of his penalty taking that is arguably a greater concern is the regularity with which opposition goalkeepers are diving the right way when Mitrović takes a spot-kick.

As displayed against Liverpool, the quality with which he strikes the ball often means this is not an issue, but on his way to a record-breaking 43-goal haul in the Championship last season it was noticeable that the ‘keeper only moved in the wrong direction twice from the seven penalties Mitrović took.

This suggests that Fulham’s no.9 may have a ‘tell’ in regards to his technique when attempting spot-kicks, allowing opponents to have a clear idea of which part of the goal he is aiming for from 12 yards.

The penalty that Sá saved at the weekend saw Mitrović quite visibly contort his body as he attempted to strike the ball into the bottom left corner of the net, possibly allowing the Portuguese goalkeeper to pre-empt which side of the goal he was aiming for.

The previous week, Mitrović had retained a far more neutral stance as he approached the kick, and even though his effort was both too accurate and too powerful for Allison to reach, the Brazilian was still able to decipher which side of the goal was being aimed for.

Altering the way in which he approaches a penalty could therefore see goalkeepers lose this advantage they appear to have gained by studying his body shape.

Suggesting ways in which a forward who scored at a rate of better than one goal per 90 last season, and currently has a record of two in two so far this term, can better find the back of the net does seem somewhat ridiculous. But with the margins likely to be so tight in determining whether or not Fulham can avoid another Premier League relegation, Mitrović refining his technique from the spot could end up making a world of difference for Marco Silva’s side.

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