In a recent interview with former Liverpool player, Joe Cole, Jordan Henderson revealed that if he had to pick one Liverpool player to take a penalty to save his life, he would pick James Milner.
The 36-year-old midfielder is no longer Liverpool’s designated penalty taker, losing the role to Mohamed Salah. However, Henderson would still pick his vice-captain. Before Salah arrived at Liverpool, Milner was a very reliable penalty taker. He still is, but Salah is just as reliable and is usually on the pitch.
Who is the better penalty taker?
In their Liverpool careers, they have taken almost the same amount of penalties with very similar records. James Milner has scored 30 out of the 35 penalties taken for Liverpool. Meanwhile, Mohamed Salah has scored 28 out of the 33 penalties he’s taken.
Liverpool have yet to win any penalties this season but Salah will be on penalty duties. If he scores his next two penalties, he and Milner will have identical records, making it hard to split the two.
It’s always between Milner and Salah when it comes to penalties, but Liverpool’s next taker has a 95.8% career record.
Liverpool midfielder, Fabinho, boasts an incredible record from the spot. He’s only missed one of his 24 penalties taken in his entire career. That miss came against Borussia Dortmund in a 3-2 win during his spell at AS Monaco.
He’s only taken three of his 24 penalties for Liverpool, all coming last season during Salah’s absence during the AFCON and once when he was subbed off. He scored those three penalties against Shrewsbury Town, Crystal Palace and Watford. Liverpool definitely have a lot of world-class penalty takers in the side, they don’t really have to worry about not having one on hand.
Watch Jordan Henderson’s full interview on the second episode of The Joe Cole Cast here: