The talk of the weekend was the Manchester United – Aston Villa game in the Premier League. Not only did the Red Devils shockingly lost at home to the Villians, but Bruno Fernandes missed the potentially equalizing penalty deep in injury time and later felt the need to apologize to the fans. And coach Ole Gunnar Solskjaer felt that he needs to defend his player from a possible intimidation form the Villa keeper Emiliano Martinez, who was seen shouting at Ronaldo to take the penalty instead of Fernandes. Just why would any coach defend a grown up man from possible intimidation (he was not pushed or beaten) is not yet known, but Martinez made his point, since the Portuguese missed. And that’s not the first time Martinez has done it. Villa keeper shouts at Ronaldo to take the penalty kick, Ole blames VAR for the lossFormer Arsenal keeper, who spent 10 years at the Emirates, but never quite got a chance is now shining in his second year in Birmingham, but also plays for the Argentina’s national team. And he saves some crucial penalties there too, with a similar tactics like the one on Saturday. He is just the master of his game. Studies have shown that distraction techniques, for example, can make it 10 percent more likely that a player will miss. And in modern game, with VAR overlooking suspicious situations in the penalty area, there are more and more penalties awarded, and goalkeepers must do everything in their power to save some of them. And those 10% can be crucial sometimes, which Martinez proved a few times. (1.57) MAN. UTD (4.20) VILLAREAL (6.50)In the before mentioned game, the Argentinian had a ‘let’s make penalty kicker self-doubt’ tactics. Before Bruno went on to shoot the penalty, Martinez was making noise and pointed out to Ronaldo, demanding that he should take the kick, which clearly affected Fernandes. However, Emi tried a different tactics in the recent Copa America semifinal with Colombia, where he directly talked to all their penalty kickers, telling them he could tell they were nervous, or that he knew where they would shoot. The result? Three of them missed, Argentina went to the finals and won 1-0 against Brazil. United legend hits Ole’s side: ”They won’t win a title, because they are an odd bunch”Off course, in the vast majority of cases, the penalty taker is accurate, but keepers always try to save as much penalties as possible. And with this techniques, Martinez is one of the best in business, since he saved 28% of the penalties he’s faced throughout his career. For example, Manchester United’s David De Gea’s record is 18%.
