UTD Podcast Robin van Persie reveals secrets behind penalty success

Van Persie largely shared penalty-taking duties with Wayne Rooney during his three years at the club, although this almost came under threat under the tenure of Louis van Gaal.

Robin’s compatriot would try and crank up the pressure of penalty practice in training by upping the stakes, as the now 36-year-old reveals: “Louis changed his rule to do a practice penalty shoot-out before every game. The one who took penalties before took it first and if you miss, you will then be number five as a penalty-taker.

“I was like ‘so if I miss once in training, I can’t take penalties anymore!? No, I don’t agree Louis, sorry! I’ve been taking penalties for you [for the Netherlands], I never missed and then you come with this rule?’

“He said he wanted us to feel the game stress and the game tension. I said that if I miss one penalty in training, it’s a bit harsh that I’m the number five on the list.

“After a couple of weeks, we did this again and I missed it in training. I looked at him and said ‘trust me, I will take a penalty if we get one tomorrow!’ He said ‘we will see about that!’ We actually got a penalty, I took it and I did score.”

You can listen to more from Robin in a special, feature-length UTD Podcast episode now.

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