Raúl Jiménez is the new Premier League penalty king, but how has he become arguably the best spot-kick taker in the English top flight?
Placing the ball on the penalty spot, Raúl Jiménez stands upright, strides backwards to the arc on the edge of the penalty area, and stands with his hands on his hips.
After taking two steps to his left, he begins his run-up, stuttering on the way to the spot 12 yards from goal, before stroking the penalty into the back of the net. It’s a much-practised and familiar routine.
After a successful effort past Manchester United goalkeeper Senne Lammens last weekend, Jiménez now holds the record for the most penalties taken in the Premier League while maintaining a 100% record from the spot.
His spot-kick in Fulham’s 3-2 defeat at Old Trafford took him to 12 from 12 in the competition, overtaking Yaya Touré’s record of 11/11 in the Premier League.
He can – for now, at least – stake a claim as the best penalty taker in Premier League history. But his penalty record is more impressive than just the 12 scored from 12 attempts in the English top flight.
Jiménez is a creature of habit with penalties. The same routine, the same view down the centre of the goal before taking a couple of steps to his left and, usually, the same outcome after his run up to the ball.
When Mexican publication Cracks visited Jiménez at Wolves’ training ground back in February 2020, the striker explained that he’s worked hard on his penalty routine since being a young reserve player at Club América during his formative years as a professional.When asked about the most important aspect of his penalty technique, he was clear that sticking to a tried-and-tested routine was crucial. “You have to be clear that you’re going to shoot like this. That you’re not going to change your style for anyone, then just at the end, see where the goalkeeper is moving before shooting it in the other direction.”
Watching the goalkeeper’s feet and body shape is a big factor in Jiménez’s penalty placement. There is no looking at the ball during his run-up, which is nearly always stuttered to allow him more time to work out the goalkeeper’s intention.
“Many of my teammates ask how I can do that, shoot without looking at the ball – they’d fall, they say. But it’s something I’ve learned, improved and I’ve been perfecting it over time.”
Once he has seen his opponent make his move, Jiménez tends to pick a side of the goal rather than shoot down the middle. It’s all about placement, too. The majority of his penalties aren’t hit with great speed, but caressed into the goal, with accuracy the key attribute for success.
Even the one against United on Sunday, which Lammens dived the right way for, was stroked into the top corner and beat the keeper with precision rather than power.
Of his 22 penalties in all competitions for Fulham and Wolves, 20 have been placed to the side of the goalkeeper: nine to the left and 11 to the right. The remaining two could be classed as being hit low and central, but they were passed into the net after the goalkeeper had dived. He has missed one in England, however… more on that to come.
In Ben Lyttleton’s book Twelve Yards: The Art and Psychology of the Perfect Penalty, he explains that “there are two ways of taking penalties: goalkeeper dependent and goalkeeper independent.”
“Goalkeeper independent is exactly as you’d expect – you strike the ball independent of where the goalkeeper is going to go and if you hit it hard and true, and it finds the target, you’re more likely than not to score a goal.”
“However, the goalkeeper dependent method is what Eden Hazard does, what Yaya Toure does, it’s what Gaizka Mendieta did. That involves waiting for the goalkeeper to move, and to do that you have to have some kind of pause in your run-up at some point. Whether it’s half a second or longer, there is some kind of checking in the run-up to allow for that pause. Then the goalkeeper normally commits himself and the player will go the other way.”
Maybe the fact that Jiménez lets the goalkeeper decide for him makes him so successful from the spot? A penalty taker who is goalkeeper independent would seemingly have a preference on where to target a penalty, making the choice less random and the power and placement on the spot-kick a much more important factor on whether it’s converted or not.
This is where Jiménez’s stuttered run to the ball helps him; the moment of attempted trickery could give him an early insight into the goalkeeper’s intentions and help him decide where to aim his shot.
Goalkeeper dependent penalties are, on the face of it, much more difficult. But Jiménez is incredibly skilled at it. Sunday’s penalty against Lammens showed that he can wait until the last moment of his run up and even when the goalkeeper dives the right way, his placement of the shot was so high into the top corner that it was virtually impossible to save.
Overall, since he debuted for Wolves in August 2018, Jiménez has taken 32 penalties (excluding shootouts) for club and country combined. He’s missed just two of those (6.3%), and on both occasions the goalkeeper has waited for Jiménez to take his penalty before deciding on which way to dive.
Yassine Bounou saved a Jiménez penalty in Wolves’ UEFA Europa League quarter-final versus Sevilla on 11 August 2020, successfully palming away when diving to his left.
Fernando Muslera was the previous goalkeeper to save a Jiménez penalty, when the Uruguayan saved from him in an international friendly against Mexico in September 2018. Muslera’s save was after diving to his right, but only after Jiménez had scored a (rare) penalty down the middle (with Muslera diving right) 50 minutes earlier in the game.
He’s taken five additional penalties in shootouts over that time, and one of those was saved; in the 2019 CONCACAF Gold Cup quarter-final versus Costa Rica. It was almost identical to the penalty that was saved by Muslera a year previous: although hit slightly harder this time, Leonel Moreira saved low to his right.
It’s even more impressive that Jiménez remains such a reliable penalty taker given many of his penalties have come in high-pressure situations.
As well as five penalties in shootouts, 17 of the remaining 32 have been taken when the score in the game was tied (53.1%) and another eight have been taken with his team a goal behind (25.0%). Two of his penalty-shootout attempts came in Fulham’s dramatic, EFL record 16-15 shootout defeat to Preston North End in September 2024. Jiménez scored both his spot-kicks.
Having such a reliable player from the penalty spot gives Fulham confidence that they will score if awarded one. Well, that’s as long as he’s on the pitch, at least. Of the last seven penalties taken by Fulham players other than Jiménez in the Premier League, more have been missed (four) than scored (three).
With fifth place in the Premier League expected to qualify for the Champions League, a top-seven finish will likely mean European football in 2026-27. Fulham are just two points off the top seven at the moment, and there could easily be a fine margin between securing a spot and not. Jiménez’s ability to deliver under pressure might just provide the crucial goals to get them over the line.
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What Makes Raúl Jiménez So Good at Penalties? Opta Analyst.
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