A lot of the sitters listed here occurred from six yards out or less, but some of the culprits can be pardoned by the fact the ball came at them at high speed or they were simply unprepared. Crystal Palace's Jason Puncheon certainly cannot hide behind that excuse, however, and nor can any other player who misses a penalty a mere 12 yards out from goal. At the best of times, penalties can be something of a lottery and if the goalkeeper dives the right way there is usually very little you can do. But when you don't test the keeper at all, and send the kick high and wide into the stands, you deserve all the criticism coming your way. As Puncheon found out recently when, on Monday this week, he received an FA charge over comments directed at Neil Warnock after the Talksport pundit criticised his penalty miss. The miss in question came against Tottenham back in January, when the midfielder thwacked his effort into Row Z, with the penalty going down as one of the worst ever in the process. Palace wound up losing the game 2-0, but Puncheon would have given his side a 1-0 lead had he shown just a little bit more composure and maturity.
Joseph is an accredited football journalist and has interviewed nearly all of the current 20 Barclay's Premier League managers. He is also a correspondent for Bleacher Report and has written for Caught Offside and Give Me Football.
