Pep Guardiola announces Riyad Mahrez will be ‘taking a break’ from penalties

After his most recent penalty miss against Borussia Dortmund, Pep Guardiola has announced that Riyad Mahrez will be “taking a break” from attempting penalties for Manchester City.

Tuesday night during City’s Champions League match in Germany, Mahrez got a penalty and then took the shot.

However, his attempt was subpar and came too close to the goalie, giving Gregor Kobel an easy stop and leading to the game’s eventual scoreless draw.

While a draw was sufficient to guarantee the Citizens’ place at the top of their group, they continue to struggle with penalties. City has missed 25 of the 80 penalties they have been given since Guardiola took over, which is the highest percentage of any Premier League side during that time.

Mahrez also failed to convert a penalty kick in the goalless draw at Copenhagen, making it two straight Champions League games in which he has failed to do so.

Mahrez, Kevin De Bruyne, Ilkay Gundogan, Rodri, Raheem Sterling, and Gabriel Jesus have all taken penalties for City in recent seasons when Sergio Aguero hasn’t been available.

‘Of course it’s a problem, we have missed 25 penalties since I’ve been here – most of them in the Champions League. It’s too much,’ Guardiola told BT Sport.

‘I always admire the courage to take them, but of course we miss a lot of penalties. We missed one in Copenhagen and here as well. In this competition it’s fine margins.’

And Guardiola believes the time has come for the Algerian winger to take a break from spot-kick duties, adding: ‘I admire the courage and bravery of the guys who take the penalties.

‘Riyad was exceptional two or three years ago, he shoot the pen to go 1-1 here to help us reach the semi for the first time.

‘Lately, he missed. He will reflect. He can take a break now with the penalties.

‘He has the mentality to go there and do it. The teams are physically strong and we give advantage to them – it happened too many times. It’s many players.’

With two penalty goals already this season, Erling Haaland seems to be City’s preferred penalty taker right now, but the prolific striker had already been substituted when the penalty against Dortmund was given.

He has a remarkable penalty record, having converted 28 of 30 attempts thus far in his career, as opposed to Mahrez’s rather dismal 22 of 32 attempts.