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Sourced from Daily Echo article
Puel confirms first choice penalty taker
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Claude Puel has insisted that Manolo Gabbiadini will continue to be Saints’ first choice penalty taker despite his miss against Manchester United.
The Italian striker had his spot kick saved by Sergio Romero, the third penalty Saints have failed to convert in the space of just five matches with Dusan Tadic and Shane Long missing the others.
However, Puel has faith in Gabbiadini and confirmed he will be on penalty duty again assuming he plays in the final game of the season against Stoke on Sunday.
Puel said: “If he starts the game then yes if there is a penalty it will be for him. We will see.
“I hope we can have a penalty and we will score the next of course because the three last were no good. It was always different players but I have confidence for the next perhaps on Sunday.”
Puel will definitely be without Shane Long for the finale at St Mary’s with the striker having broken a metatarsal. Full backs Ryan Bertrand and Cedric Soares are also injury doubts.
Charlie Austin will feature at some point, but Puel refused to confirm whether he would get a first start since December.
“We will see,” said Puel. “He is available and it’s interesting to see him.
“I cannot give a starting team but I hope he can play some minutes and I don’t know how long but he will play.”
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… and why not ? Can’t really get on his back for one penalty miss, it was as much a good save by a goalkeeper on fine form that night. Naturally it smarts a bit that it could of been the winner and even more by the fact that it was our third miss in succession but it doesn’t neccessarily make him a bad penalty taker.
Personally JPW would be my choice but I don’t see as much of them in training as Puel.
As someone mentioned on another thread, we have been spoilt over the years by MLT and Rickie Lambert (and the oldies will remember David Peach) … that sort of consistency is rare and we were lucky.
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One might observe that if that the other night was his interview for the role, it didn’t go particularly well…
It did if Tadic and Long were the other candidates… it was on target 
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As mentioned on another thread, get Matty involved. Worked wonders with Beattie.
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Also when Austin is back full time (until his next injury) it has to be his duty.
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My issue with Gabbis penalty were his eyes before the kick.
Just seemed to lack confidence then the stuttering run up.
Penalties are as much mental state as technique. Imho he had at least doubt if not fear.
And I worry about where the hell that came from in the space of a few weeks.
There seems to be a psychological barrier building up at St Marys that is affecting our ability to score. Players pick up on the vibes from the crowd and nerves can set in. We need to get a few goals at settle those nerves and today is a perfect time so we can start next season with this thing about negative home form hanging over our heads.
This.
You can see on the replay from behind the goal the “…oh shit…” look on Gabbi’s face as he finishes his stutter, looks up at Romero, and realises he hasn’t moved a muscle.
From there he’s lost all momentum in his run, so can’t strike the ball properly and has to just try and quickly tap it into a corner as quickly as he can.
I’ve never understood the stuttering run-up for this reason entirely; a keeper can really throw you off by simply standing stock still and the less momentum from the run you have, the more you telegraph which way you’re going as you have to generate the power purely from your body shape/backswing.
Just bury the fucking thing - and if he does get a hand to it he’s probably losing fingers.
This guy was taking pens at the local village day this morning. He looked quite useful…we should sign him up.
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Seen it before. That brief period when we were troubling the CL spots.
That was expectation killing us. This is something else.
