Adi Hütter has admitted that he might change AS Monaco’s penalty taker after Folarin Balogun (22) missed his fourth attempt of the season.
The American forward joined from Arsenal in the summer after a successful loan spell in Ligue 1 with Stade de Reims last year. Despite this, Balogun had a slow start to life at his new club but has slowly begun to fit smoothly into Hütter’s system where he scored his fifth for the season against RC Lens.
It was a wonderful effort that was snuck in at the near post and helped Monaco come away from the Stade Bollaert-Delelis with a 3-2 victory. However, despite an overall good performance, Balogun’s confidence at set pieces was called into question as he missed another penalty for his new club.
Whilst, Monaco won this game, his previous misses from the spot have been more costly for the side. Against OGC Nice early in the season, Balogun missed twice which allowed their rivals to sneak a late victory, and against FC Rouen, his miss meant that the club were knocked out of a favourable tie in the Coupe de France.
Balogun to be taken out of the hot seat
Speaking after the match, Hütter touched on the subject stating “He’s missed four penalties this season, that’s a lot. I take responsibility for this, maybe we’ll think about the order of shooters in the future. But I’m otherwise very satisfied with his performance.”
GFFN | Nick Hartland
