It’s interesting how quickly it has shifted to everything being interpreted through the prism of assumed incompetence. Reijnen was one of the team Slot identified that he wanted to bring with him from Holland and was told it would be unlikely because of the work permit issues.
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Up until the Arse fans drank the Kool Aid and did a mural for theirs, nobody gave two hoots about the set piece coach.
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All I really want from a set piece coach is that they can teach our lads to head it away and they don’t hop about like a lunatic on the touchline every time we get a corner, like that prick at Arsenal.
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not really.
football isnt so sophisticated that a ‘set piece coach’ is someone who has studied the art of set pieces in tertiary education and has worked his (or hers) way up through the clubs by improving set pieces from divvy 4 onwards…theres no grass roots role for that job.
hes a firstly a football coach/trainer, who is tasked with working on set peices…
i understand how its a position, but i think we are overestimating the game if we think its a career in itself.
Slot and Virgil can have a whinge about it all tey like, but really, if its not working, they ultimately have more control over the situation than a bit part coach…
take the penalty Virgil gave up a few weeks back, or even the goal we conceded Vs Wolves…no one could ever convince me its on a specialist coach who may get ‘x’ amount of access to the playing squad, to rectify those very basic mistakes.
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Hot take there. Amazing how these guys come crawling out the woodwork.
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I remember when we were laughed at for bringing in a specialist throw-in coach. Now apparently people in the upper echelons don’t know what they’re doing and we’re losing ground to our rivals.
Reality is we appointed someone to look after the set-piece aspect. He’s not done a great job so has been sacked and the rest of the coaching group will look after it until a suitable replacement is found.
The teeth gnashing around this is quite funny really.
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It’s an amazing piece.
“Briggs is an analyst not a set piece specialist.” It then goes on to list various set pieces “specialists” who are actually analysts and points out that set piece specialists are essentially former analysts who were eventually given authority over set pieces
In recent years, many analysts have made the natural progression to become a coach-analyst, so that might be an area Liverpool choose to explore when they consider a replacement for Briggs.
You mean Briggs’ career path?
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It’s almost as if the job of looking at set pieces involves a degree of analysis.
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The only relevant part of the piece is the suggestion that candidates turned us down over concerns on the amount of autonomy they’d have. That is a claim I have seen no where else. Not only does Evans skate right over it not elaborating or pointing to additional reporting on it, he doesn’t think it relevant to link that supposed issue to where things went wrong under Briggs and what that means for the likely success of any replacement?
This is just pure guy down the pub bullshit, like the Paul Whitehouse character from the Fast Show who never agrees with himself one sentence after the next
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Who gives a shit?
I mean if a professional footballer playing for a top European team doesn’t know how to defend what the fuck is he doing there?
The whole fucking lot need a kick up the arse before it’s not just VVD throwing his hands at the ball, which admittedly is better than covering his eyes with them in fright, and giving away penalties galore.
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Add another to the list of people Arne couldn’t improve through coaching.
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It’s not funny, unless you think our recruitment process is a joke.
- A need for a set piece specialist was identified and made public.
- After months we found no one and decided to promote from within. Which in itself is not wrong. A big call was made to appoint someone with limited experience and results. It didn’t work out, no biggie.
- We are still not ready to appoint a dedicated set piece specialist. This is the crux and the funny part.
Sure someone could be on his way and just ready to be announced. Hopefully.
Otherwise, am I being led to believe that the current coaches are so skilled at set pieces that the original need for a dedicated set piece coach is no longer needed?
Surely the ongoing analysis didn’t just identify set pieces as a problem in December. If not, why then are we so unprepared or unable to recruit an experienced specialist like other clubs?
And yet, aside from the throw-in bloke this is the first dedicated set-piece coach we’d have ever had. A role people have now decided is so important even though we’d never had one before.
As for “limited experience” well he’s hardly a rookie. This much vaunted Arsenal one was an analyst before becoming a specialist set-piece coach, much like this bloke.
But let’s say we did identify this critical role, found no one, pushed an inexperienced square peg into a round hole and then sacked him, you’re pissy because we don’t have someone else immediately lined up.
Given your passion I’m assuming you have someone in mind?
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12 (or 46%) of our goals conceded in the PL this season were from set pieces. Is it important? Did we just notice yesterday?
Yes we decided it was important when we decided to post for a dedicated set piece coach a year and a half ago. Klopp also had Mark Leyland (who was known for set pieces although not dedicated) for many seasons before he left us and as you rightfully pointed out we had a throw-in specialist.
Leyland also had an analysis background BTW. As I said before, I don’t have a problem with it as long as he also has experience.
You also mentioned Jover. He has been known for set pieces for years. Started drom analysis too I believe. Hardly inexperienced when Arteta appointed him but he was a bit of a pioneer.
And yes, there are a number of notable, experienced set-piece specialists out there and it doesn’t take much more than a quick search to find a list of accomplished and experienced ones:
Vio of course… who started the trend
Aaron Danks (Bayern Muich)
Austin MacPhee (Villa)
Anthony Barry (England)
Cueva (Chelsea)
Andreas Kronenberg (DFB)
Francesco Mauri (RM) or his dad Giovanni (retired?)
Jack Wilson (Man City)
Keith Andrews (Brentford)
There are people out there and yes, I am annoyed because we started looking for one a year and a half ago and it has been a frequent topic for improvement this season. Perhaps the term dedicated can be left out but we need help in this area and it is not new.
Should I be passionate about probably one of our biggest performance issues this season? As a supporter, how can I not be?
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Arsenal’s pioneering and experienced set piece coach last season ladies and gentlemen.
I’m not suggesting we can’t improve. But if they didn’t think there was a suitable candidate at the time and felt an in-house appointment was the best option then so be it.
We have zero knowledge of who applied, who was approached, who was interviewed or considered or how we reached the decision to appoint Briggs. It’s not gone well, he’s been sacked and no doubt we’ll be trying to rectify the situation. People now just choosing to get wound up about stuff they have no clue about.
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Why don’t you talk about how many set piece goals Arsenal scored (12 in 2024 from non-penalties) and the relative dip it was from the previous season (20 in 2024).
With your reasoning we shouldn’t be able to form an opinion about anything at the club.
But no seriously. I’m just looking at reasonable results here. The recruitment is failing Slot badly here. We should, without much difficulty, have been able to recruit a specialist who could have taken us out of the bottom 3 for set piece goals scored last season rather than giving him the full time job without a contingency.
The downward trajectory formed should have highlighted some risk and preparation.
If even this risk could not have been foreseen and planned for then you must have a really, really low expectations on what is possible.
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My point is appointing a set piece coach isn’t an immediate fix to our problems. Even the ones you’ve heard of don’t always make their team one of the best.
But again, I’ve no issue with us bringing one in. I’ve no argument against us needing to improve in this aspect. But to blame the club for the process which resulted in us appointing Briggs is completely pointless as we have zero insight into how that came about.
They appointed who they felt was the best option, he’s been sacked because it’s not panned out, we move on.
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