Manchester United release list of the top penalty-takers for the club 

Manchester United v Everton - Premier League
Manchester United v Everton - Premier League

What's the story?

Manchester United has released a list comparing some of their greatest modern penalty-takers on their official website with the help of Opta statistics.

In case you didn't know...

If anything, Jose Mourinho's Manchester United team is in need of a consistent penalty-taker at the moment as the likes of Paul Pogba and Alexis Sanchez have had a worrying amount of misses in the last year.

Having said that, the side's most recent penalty was successful as Anthony Martial stepped up to take the spot-kick in United's 3-1 defeat to reigning Premier League champions Manchester City before the international break.

The Red Devils previously boasted of a host of consistent and clinical penalty-takers and the club has made now made official comparisons to determine who United's best penalty-taker is.

The heart of the matter

Manchester United has released a list of the club's top penalty-takers on their official website, finally clearing up 'the most clinical player' argument for fans.

Despite being the player who has scored the most penalties in a United shirt in Premier League history (20 out of 28), Wayne Rooney stands at sixth place on the list in accuracy (71.4%).

Eric Cantona was unveiled to be the most clinical penalty-taker of the club, having missed only two - against Blackburn Rovers and former club Leeds United - of his 16 spot kicks. He boasts of an 87.5% accuracy.

Juventus star Cristiano Ronaldo comes second in the standings with an accuracy of 84.6%. The five-time Ballon d'Or winner only missed twice from 12 yards - against Wigan and West Ham.

The top five spots are filled by Ruud Van Nistelrooy ((81.8%), who scored 18 out of his 22 penalties, Denis Irwin (77.8%) who scored 7 out of 9 and Robin Van Persie (75%) who netted 6 out of 8 goals for the club.

What's next?

Manchester United will return to Premier League action when they face Crystal Palace on Saturday.

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