It's not that surprising. Liberia isn't that great (ranked 149th in the world) and not only has never qualified for the World Cup, they've only qualified for the African Cup of Nations twice (and the last time was in 2002). Of course they'd want Wright. Ghana is also not quite as good as they used to be. They finished last in their group in the most recent African Cup of Nations, including a loss to Comoros. Ghana's probably more tempting given they are in the World Cup, but I don't know enough about their team as to where he'd be in the pecking order.
I think statistically there's only about .05 goals difference between your top taker and the next. And it may well not transfer to the next situation because you're not favored for the duty. For the nat'l team, is he getting the duty from CP, whether he deserves to or not? If so, that's an example of one team who wouldn't get the benefit. So you just can apply the 10 non pk goals from this season, not 13.
No, they aren’t, as the delta between the top taker and the next several is right around statistically insignificant. Penalty shootouts have been proven to be almost entirely random. ~All of the variance stems from who wins the coin toss to go first vs second.
The pk taker has an enormous advantage over the keeper and these are pros. I have never understood how some of these pros can sky so many shots…pk’s or otherwise. NBA shooters work on mechanics. These guys should be doing similar preparation where they are getting tons of reps with mechanics trainers. Every shot they take should be on frame.
Every country coming out of the woodwork. Ghana wouldn't be such a bad option if he wasn't 100% gunning for us.
That being said, I've seen even college players air ball a free throw. Under pressure in the glare of the spotlight (and lasers as Salah can attest), confidence is lost, and once the brain starts to question muscle memory, any result even from the simplest of tasks is possible. Guessing, second guessing and triple guessing where the keeper is going to go just adds to the brain getting in the way of the muscle memory. Unless you are talented enough to be confident enough in your ability to put it into the low side netting 95% of the time, there will always be pressure.
Based on that video, I like … — his instinct to be a distributor and for the combination play in the box — willingness to get stuck in — speed/mobility seems decent for his size … and I assume he converts chances based on his goal totals for the year. Don’t like … — some heavy touches hurt him — speed maybe not good enough for Gregg (the press is all) Berhalter
Yes, he still has a heavy touch, but not as bad as before. His advantage is he is very fast for a big man, faster than Pepi, Sargent, and Pefok. And his willingness to press. Not sure how good of a motor he has.
Definitely did not get that from the video. I’d be be surprised if that is true. ETA: So I looked up the FIFA pace ratings for all 3. Lo and behold Wright (77) is slightly faster than Sarge (75), and then they have Pepi far behind (64). I had no idea Pepi was that slow, and I kind of think he isn’t. I also think that Sarge is quicker than most people realize. But I stand corrected.
Let’s not take fifa pace ratings as a judge of peoples real speed. I don’t believe the accuracy of those things.
The most reputable (some would say, the only reputable) database of player statistics is the famous Football Manager Database, that now is finally online (back in the day you had to 'obtain' somehow the massive CSV file, when you didn't have the software itself). The three guys are ranked low in FM22: Sarge overall 61, same for Haji, and Pepi 56. Acceleration Haji 15 Sarge 13 Pepi 12 Pace: Haji 14 Pepi 14 Sarge 12 Stamina: Pepi 13 Sarge 10 Haji 9 So it's a close one. Sarge is a bit slower at max speed than the other too, and Haji accelerates fastest of all. However, Pepi has the endurance of a mule, while Sarge and Haji are only above average for forwards. Their physical numbers are good, for all three, but where all fail is in the technical: 13/14 finishing is weak, for a decent striker you expect 15 and above. 10/11/12 is a sad number for dribbling, too. And only Pepi doesn't get a garbage score for positioning. Sauce: https://fminside.net/players
More interesting to me would be if someone had Wright's xG numbers compared to his actual goals scored.
Couple off touches. Not enough for me to say overall poor first touch though. Just my personal opinion.
Only English and Germans are stats-obsessed. Good luck finding anything like that from anywhere else.