After Jamal Blackman and Simon Mignolet's finely struck spot-kicks we ask - why don't goalkeepers take more penalties?

Goalkeepers always seem to whack 'em in in shoot-outs

Last night's incredible 14-13 shoot-out triumph for Liverpool against Middlesbrough brought a question we've been thinking about asking for years to the fore - why don't goalkeepers take more penalties?

Amongst the array of 27 emphatically struck spot-kicks were the efforts from 'Boro's Jamal Blackman and Simon Mignolet in the 'Reds goal.

Is it the element of surprise for their opposite number why a 'keeper alway seems to convert? There's no giving the eye, or stuttering his run up here. They also have nothing to lose - it's their job to save the kicks and anything else is a bonus.

Manuel Neuer against Chelsea in the 2012 Champions League final, and the gloveless Ricardo vs England at Euro 2004 both showed their outfield team-mates how to score from 12 yards.

Stories of goalkeepers actually ever failing to score in a shoot-out are remarkably rare, meaning Steve Simonsen's case was all the more memorable.

The then Sheffield United stopper missed the vital spot-kick to give Huddersfield an 8-7 win on penalties in the 2012 League One play-off final after the match ended 0-0 after extra time.

"Obviously it's the lowest part of my career," he told BBC Radio Sheffield in the aftermath of his miss.

"I've replayed it a million times in my head and I just can't bear to watch it at the moment."

Come on, let's see some statistics then..

As reported in The Guardian before this summer's World Cup final, in shoot-outs in major international and European competitions in the last 10 years, goalkeepers have taken less than one per cent of penalties (four out of 519) - but their success rate was 100 per cent.