Penalty Takers

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With 8 weeks gone, we now have a decent idea of how the season is going to shake out. One of the things that is becoming clearer is who will take penalties for each team, a good source of points, particularly when defenders and midfielders are given the penalty duties.
Below is a list of the players expected to continue penalty taking duties for their respective teams:

Arsenal - Emmanuel Adebayour
Aston Villa - Gareth Barry
Blackburn - Roque Santa Cruz
Bolton - Kevin Nolan
Chelsea - Frank Lampard
Everton - Mikel Arteta
Fulham - Danny Murphy
Hull - Marlon King
Liverpool - Steven Gerrard
Man City - Robinho
Man Utd - Cristiano Ronaldo
Middlesbrough - Stuart Downing
Newcastle - Michael Own
Portsmouth - Jermaine Defoe
Stoke - Liam Lawrence/Danny Higginbotham
Sunderland - Djibril Cisse
Tottenham - Luka Modric
West Brom - Roman Bednar
West Ham - Craig Bellamy
Wigan - Amr Zaki

A couple of these players are purely speculative due to a lack of penalties for a couple of clubs so far this year.
What is noticeable is that Higginbotham is the only defender to appear on the list, and even he is unlikely to consistently take the pens when Lawrence returns. Of the midfielders, the only cheaper options are Nolan (5.8), Lawrence (5.3) and Murphy (5.4) who are decent if not great options if the match up is right. These cheaper players are worth monitoring, as would anyone else who steals the penalty duties as the season goes on.

Comments

Unknown said…
Beware that penalties can also be missed by the taker... getting you some juicy minus-points. A couple of months into last season my players had missed 5 of 6 penalties! (None so far this season, luckily. Haven't had too many, though.)
October 22, 2008 at 12:04 PM
Chris said…
Yeh I think Downing owners are feeling your pain this season. Lukcily I haven't had any misses. Not many scores though, Zaki and van Persie my only successes.
October 22, 2008 at 4:22 PM
Ash said…
I think Ade and Van Persie alternate penalty taking duties.
October 23, 2008 at 10:14 PM
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