Some penalty-takers boast near-perfect records from 12 yards.
Take former Brentford striker Ivan Toney, who missed just two of the 32 penalties he took during his career before moving to Saudi Arabia in the summer.
Southampton legend Matt Le Tissier missed just one of the 44 penalties he took for both the Saints and England.
Other players, however, don’t boast quite so impressive records from the spot. Here, FootballFanCast has delved into the stats to find the the eight players with the most penalty misses in Premier League history.
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Rank
Player
Pens taken
Pens missed
Miss rate
Wayne Rooney
33
11
33.3%
Steven Gerrard
39
7
17.9%
Frank Lampard
50
7
14%
Riyad Mahrez
19
6
31.6%
Jermain Defoe
20
6
30%
Sergio Aguero
33
6
18.2%
Mohamed Salah
33
6
18.2%
Jamie Vardy
33
6
18.2%
8 Jamie Vardy 6 penalties missed
Not one to deploy the “wait and see what the ‘keeper does” approach of many modern penalty-takers, when Leicester City striker Jamie Vardy steps up from the spot, he often chooses to simply lash it with all his might at the goal.
Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t. Since the 2015/16 season, Vardy has taken 33 Premier League spot kicks for the Foxes, scoring 27 and missing six – the most recent coming towards the end of the 2022/23 season in a 5-3 defeat to Fulham.
Season
Team
Opposition
Result
2015/16
Leicester
Everton
W 3-1
2017/18
Leicester
Liverpool
L 2-3
2018/19
Leicester
Tottenham
L 1-3
2019/20
Leicester
Burnley
L 1-2
2020/21
Leicester
Wolves
W 1-0
2022/23
Leicester
Fulham
L 3-5
7 Mohamed Salah 6 penalties missed
Quite strangely, Mohamed Salah boasts the exact same penalty record as Jamie Vardy in the Premier League, with the Egyptian having scored 27 and missed six spot-kicks for Liverpool in the top flight.
Two of Salah’s missed penalties came in recent games against Bournemouth. The first was in March 2023, when Salah missed the target from 12 yards in a famous 1-0 win for the Cherries at the Vitality Stadium.
The second came just five months later at Anfield, with Bournemouth goalkeeper Neto getting down smartly to deny the Egyptian, who then tapped in the rebound.
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ByBarney Lane 6 Sergio Aguero 6 penalties missed
Manchester City never lost a Premier League game in which Sergio Aguero scored a penalty, winning 24 and drawing just two of the 26 matches in which the Argentinian was on target from the spot.
In fact, City lost just once when Aguero took a penalty, whether he scored or not.
That sole defeat came in May 2021 at the hands of Chelsea, with Aguero missing from the spot just before half-time in a 2-1 victory for the Blues at the Etihad Stadium.
5 Jermain Defoe 6 penalties missed
At the time of writing, Jermain Defoe is the Premier League’s 10th all-time top scorer with 162 goals.
Had he been more clinical from the spot earlier in his career, he could be even higher on that list. In 307 games for Tottenham Hotspur and Portsmouth between 2003 and 2014, the Englishman took 14 penalties, scoring only eight and missing six – one per season between 2005/06 and 2010/11.
After Defoe moved to Sunderland in 2014, his record from 12 yards improved drastically, with the veteran striker scoring all six of his Premier League spot-kicks for the Black Cats.
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ByMark Marston 4 Riyad Mahrez 6 penalties missed
During his spells with Leicester City and Manchester City, Riyad Mahrez took a total of 19 penalties in the Premier League.
He scored 13, but missed six – meaning his conversion rate from the spot in the top flight was just a dismal 68%.
Three of his penalty misses for Leicester came in the space of just eight months in 2016, with the Algerian failing from the spot against Bournemouth, Aston Villa and Swansea City.
3 Frank Lampard 7 penalties missed
Frank Lampard scored 43 penalties during his Premier League career, which is the second-most of any player in the division’s history, behind only Newcastle United legend Alan Shearer with 56.
However, Lampard also missed seven penalties during his time in the top flight. The Englishman missed from the spot for Chelsea twice against Stoke City, twice against Manchester City, and once against Charlton Athletic, Newcastle and Hull City.
2 Steven Gerrard 7 penalties missed
There was little to separate Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard, two of the greatest midfielders in Premier League history, during their playing days. Both could pick a pass, both had a great eye for goal, and both were integral to their respective teams’ successes.
When it came to missing penalties, the two could only be separated by Gerrard taking fewer spot-kicks than his former England teammate.
Just like Lampard, Gerrard missed from the spot on seven occasions in the top flight, failing to score from 12 yards in games against Arsenal, Fulham, West Ham United, Blackburn Rovers, West Bromwich Albion, Manchester United and Queens Park Rangers.
1 Wayne Rooney 11 penalties missed
No player in Premier League history has missed as many penalties as Wayne Rooney, who misfired from the spot on 11 occasions during his career – eight times for Manchester United and three times for Everton.
Those three misses for the Toffees all came after he re-joined his boyhood club in the 2017/18 season, with the England legend missing from 12 yards against West Ham, Swansea and Brighton & Hove Albion.
Fortunately for Rooney, him missing penalties proved to be a good omen. The 13 games in which he missed from the spot in all competitions ended in victory for his team.
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