Superman pose, power and mindfulness: Examining Salahs Liverpool penalties

May 31, 2024

Mohamed Salah always seems to be on his way towards breaking one record or another.

The Liverpool forward’s next Premier League goal, for example, will be his 100th in the competition.

But Salah becoming the 30th member of the “100 Club”, as he will likely do in the coming weeks, is not our focus here. Instead, it is his penalty-taking record.

Of the 15 penalties he has taken in the Premier League since signing from Roma in the summer of 2017, the Egyptian has missed just one. And that was his first, against Huddersfield Town at Anfield that October, when he was denied by Jonas Lossl in the first half of a match Liverpool went on to win 3-0.

Since then, he has gone on an impressive run of scoring every penalty he has taken for the club in all competitions. That is 17 in total. You would be hard-pressed to find a player with a better accumulative record.

Salah’s 14th consecutive penalty scored in the league came against his former club Chelsea at Anfield last weekend. It puts him joint-second on the list of longest penalty-scoring runs in the Premier League.

The 29-year-old is now level with Alan Shearer and Leighton Baines.

Scoring his next spot-kick will see him surpass the two former England internationals, but Salah has his work cut out to chase down Southampton legend Matt Le Tissier’s incredible return of 23 in a row.

Salah was described in commentary as “the calmest man in the building” when he blasted the ball beyond Edouard Mendy from the spot to level things up against Chelsea last weekend — but what is it that makes his penalties so hard to keep out?

His coolness is certainly among his strengths. He handles the pressure extremely well and a lot of this is down to how he is able to centre his focus in the seconds leading up to taking a penalty.

The stance

To determine why Salah is so good from the spot, first we must look at his power stance.

Salah likes to start his run-up from right of centre in the middle of the D. He places his hands on his hips as the below still, taken from the Manchester City game in February this year, demonstrates.

This Superman-style pose not only keeps his arms out of the way, it allows his chest to open up. TV cameras often pan onto Salah as he is inhaling and exhaling before approaching the spot.

The mindfulness he practises here is not something he is alone in doing — most players take deep breaths in this situation, but it is one of the things that is crucial to his success from 12 yards out.

As we can see below, Salah quickly snaps out of the stance once his run-up begins and we see his arms loosen.

The run-up

This is something Salah has honed during his time at Liverpool.

He takes three or four (usually three) side-skips further to the right and once he reaches the edge of the box he takes five or six steps (usually five) towards the ball.

Before his final step, where his right foot gets planted next to the ball, Salah is already loading up his left foot for release.

His technique is on display in the below video of a penalty he scored, also against Manchester City, in November 2020.

A clinical penalty from @MoSalah 🤩⚽️

That's Mo's 🔟th goal in all comps this season 🙌 pic.twitter.com/53rhROY5HW

— Liverpool FC (@LFC) November 9, 2020

The force

Salah rarely ever rolls the ball into the net and has never been the type of player to attempt a panenka. There are no mind games or toying with the goalkeeper.

He picks a spot in what is known as the goalkeeper-independent method, which is the same technique Harry Kane uses for Tottenham Hotspur and England. Salah shows no fear when stepping up and will put as much pace on the shot as possible. He is also confident enough to hit the ball down the centre of the goal.

In the above image, he caught West Ham United’s Lukasz Fabianski out at Anfield last October with a low, driven finish. Seven of his 14 goals have been low shots.

Salah had also opted to blast the ball right down the middle from the spot for his first goal of last season against Leeds United. For the penalty that became the winning goal that same day, however, he decided to curve a shot to Illan Meslier’s right.

Ever wondered what it's like to take a penalty in front of the Kop? 🤔

See through @MoSalah's eyes as he kept cool with a late winner against Leeds 🙌⚽️ pic.twitter.com/n12ALpMVu1

— Liverpool FC (@LFC) September 15, 2020

The placement

Salah rarely fires the ball tightly into the corners of the net and he always hits the target.

He clearly favours shooting to his left (the goalkeeper’s right), with six of his 14 Premier League penalty goals going in that direction.

Again, note that none were fired right into the corners. This reflects the onus Salah puts on power over placement. That accuracy makes it extremely difficult for goalkeepers to deny him, even if his shots are within their reach.

That one miss against Huddersfield nearly four years ago was hit to the right so perhaps this is part of the reason the Egyptian tends to direct his spot kicks to the left or more centrally.

When looking through his gallery of successful penalties, it is no surprise to see Salah is just one away from equalling Jan Molby’s club record of scoring 18 in a row (in all competitions). Remarkably, converting 18 penalties in a row is something the Dane accomplished twice over 12 years at Liverpool from 1984.

Goalkeepers will continue to study Salah’s spot kicks, just as we have here.

But stopping them is another matter — especially when you consider how refined his process has become.

(Photo: Mike Egerton/PA Images via Getty Images)

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