17 Dec 2014 08:20:55
Regarding the poll of the day:

I believe that penalties should count towards a players total. However not if the rules stay as they are.

For example, Jesus Navas beats 4 players to get into a one on one sitauation. Then he is brought down and Aguero steps up to claim a goal he doesn't deserve. In my opinion, either the rules stay the same and anybody can take the penalty BUT then they don't count towards your total. Or the rules change to stipulate that only the player who won the penalty is allowed to take it and they then do count towards your total.

I just find it so ridiculous that a centre back can be pushed at a corner and that then justifies a striker getting a free shot at goal from 12 yards out. Its even more unfair that players like Costa will be beaten to the golden boot by Aguero purely because he takes penalties other players are winning for him most of the time.

Free kicks I don't mind because it takes a great deal of skill to score through a crowd of up to 20 players from outside the box and it gives the opposition the opportunity to defend the situation. Penalties are cheap goals for whoever is the designated penalty taker though that distort goal scoring records.

I know it's a controversial opinion and one that will never go anywhere, but I just think it's unfair on players like Costa and Sturridge that they have to score twice as many open play goals to win a golden boot purely because Hazard and Gerrard take all the penalties in their team that Aguero gets to take in his team. It devalues the golden boot award because certain players have unfair advantages. I'd also love to see how many people would still rate Messi and Ronaldo as a better player than Suarez who can score over 20/30 league goals without relying on penalties.