Austin MacPhee

[Lyle Lanley]

Austin has stepped down from his role with the national team. 

[tamthebam]

16 minutes ago, Lyle Lanley said:

Austin has stepped down from his role with the national team. 

Oh, that's a shame

[Pie Of The Month]

I have no idea if the stats back it up but it feels like our set pieces for MacPhee's first couple of years were excellent and the last 12 months or so the quality of them has been dreadful.

Feels like a job for numbers to disprove on here.

[Barry Ferguson's Hat]

The rats are fleeing a sinking ship.

[well again]

How many more to go before we get to that fud clarke?

[Butters Scotch]

The whole idea of having set piece coaches is everything that is wrong with modern day fitba, same with throw in specialists. 

What is wrong with just delivering a quality ball into the box and let your big men attack it or surely the head or assistant coach can come up with some clever plays to try out every once a while?

[Miguel Sanchez]

 

[Londonwell]

43 minutes ago, Butters Scotch said:

The whole idea of having set piece coaches is everything that is wrong with modern day fitba, same with throw in specialists. 

What is wrong with just delivering a quality ball into the box and let your big men attack it or surely the head or assistant coach can come up with some clever plays to try out every once a while?

What’s the point of having coaches at all!? Just stick it in the mixer. 

[accies1874]

3 hours ago, Pie Of The Month said:

I have no idea if the stats back it up but it feels like our set pieces for MacPhee's first couple of years were excellent and the last 12 months or so the quality of them has been dreadful.

Feels like a job for numbers to disprove on here.

Pretty sure the first game he was involved in was the 3-2 v Israel. We've had 33 games since then, so I've split them into the first 16 and last 17* and done my best to remember the goals. Very much a slapdash job and excluding penalties and throw-ins, but...

We were +1 for set-piece goals in his first 16 and +3 for his last 17. It's worth including goals conceded too, as I'm pretty sure that set-piece coaches are responsible for defending them as well which is why the numbers have supposedly cancelled each other out in the Premier League, for example. 

Feel free to prove me wrong as there are plenty of caveats. 

*there wasn't a relevant goal in the 17th (2-1 v Norway), so it doesn't matter where you split it

[velo army]

2 minutes ago, accies1874 said:

Pretty sure the first game he was involved in was the 3-2 v Israel. We've had 33 games since then, so I've split them into the first 16 and last 17* and done my best to remember the goals. Very much a slapdash job and excluding penalties and throw-ins, but...

We were +1 for set-piece goals in his first 16 and +3 for his last 17. It's worth including goals conceded too, as I'm pretty sure that set-piece coaches are responsible for defending them as well which is why the numbers have supposedly cancelled each other out in the Premier League, for example. 

Feel free to prove me wrong as there are plenty of caveats. 

*there wasn't a relevant goal in the 17th (2-1 v Norway), so it doesn't matter where you split it

I'd suggest that Norway's goal in that game was relevant as they won their penalty from a corner, but that probably opens up a boring can of worms.

 

[accies1874]

9 minutes ago, velo army said:

I'd suggest that Norway's goal in that game was relevant as they won their penalty from a corner, but that probably opens up a boring can of worms.

 

I don't think it was. Definitely a cross into the box but I don't think it was a corner.

If you want to go down that route then you can drop it to +2 for the recent games as France won their penalty from a corner. 

[BukyOHare]

1 hour ago, Butters Scotch said:

The whole idea of having set piece coaches is everything that is wrong with modern day fitba

Dont go all full on da in response but set pieces in the final third offer teams a higher percentage opportunity than you'd naturally think with which to score from.

Even moreso when you get games with few chances being created from open play.

Have a look at the vast majority of teams setpieces and you'll see first hand the reason that teams should spend more time practicing them and coming up with inventive / creative routines.

[2426255]

4 hours ago, Pie Of The Month said:

I have no idea if the stats back it up but it feels like our set pieces for MacPhee's first couple of years were excellent and the last 12 months or so the quality of them has been dreadful.

Feels like a job for numbers to disprove on here.

In the last year our throw-ins (for and against) have been top quality. You won't find many teams better than Scotland at winning turnovers, keeping possession, doing a quick play that creates a crossing opportunity and general decision making around when to do what. Robertson in particular as he's a throw-in specialist since working with Thomas Gronnemark at Liverpool. 

Our corners and free-kicks (against) have been very decent of late - even in the Euros. Attacking corners and free-kicks is a mixed bag. That's quite normal. The biggest thing for me is you can see thought has gone into all our set plays even if they don't always bear fruit or aren't executed well (Poland).

Organising set plays tends to see initial gains particularly against weaker nations who dont have a coach. As you move up levels it doesn't always provide an advantage and maybe just puts you on parity. I think replacing MacPhee would be worthwile personally, he's done very well for us.

Edited September 29 by 2426255

[Richey Edwards]

Goodbye sweet prince x

[Scary Bear]

1 hour ago, Londonwell said:

What’s the point of having coaches at all!? Just stick it in the mixer. 

Bring back the committee.

[Butters Scotch]

3 hours ago, BukyOHare said:

Dont go all full on da in response but set pieces in the final third offer teams a higher percentage opportunity than you'd naturally think with which to score from.

Even moreso when you get games with few chances being created from open play.

Have a look at the vast majority of teams setpieces and you'll see first hand the reason that teams should spend more time practicing them and coming up with inventive / creative routines.

I'm pretty sure all teams spend a lot of time on set pieces on the training ground and I'm very aware of how important set pieces are especially to a team like Scotland. 

My point being is that football is a simple game but it's made hard at times and teams are being over coached IMO. 

That free kick against Poland being one example of that, the ball was in a great position to be hit or player to cross it in yet the free kick taker passes it across to a Poland player.

You see corner kick routines time and again by teams trying to lob the ball into the back or front posts that end up going over everyone or hitting the first man. 

The best team for set pieces at the moment is Arsenal as they do a very simple thing, they deliver a quality in swinging cross  in on top of the keeper, get a lot of bodies in around the keeper and let the likes of Gabriel run to attack it.... simples. 

[Londonwell]

19 minutes ago, Butters Scotch said: 

The best team for set pieces at the moment is Arsenal as they do a very simple thing, they deliver a quality in swinging cross  in on top of the keeper, get a lot of bodies in around the keeper and let the likes of Gabriel run to attack it.... simples. 

Didn’t see their game yesterday then I take it. They tried a few times and eventually scored from playing the ball beyond the back post to Trossard. 

[Butters Scotch]

46 minutes ago, Londonwell said:

Didn’t see their game yesterday then I take it. They tried a few times and eventually scored from playing the ball beyond the back post to Trossard. 

Huh? So you expect this to work every game or something?

I did see most of their game and the ball in for Trossard was pretty much the same delivery they have been trying in every game but was slightly overhit. It's pretty clear they are targeting the back post area and in particular Gabriel at every opportunity they can, it's very simple

[Old Bing]

It's hard to gauge what's going on here, he was publicly shown clarkes displeasure with him recently. So the timing is suspect, but we're never going to know the real story.

Either way, the set peice expert who has our best target (McTominay) hitting the corners Is maybe not a great loss.

It's part of the game now tho so hopefully he's replaced by someone better.

[Londonwell]

2 minutes ago, Old Bing said:

It's hard to gauge what's going on here, he was publicly shown clarkes displeasure with him recently. So the timing is suspect, but we're never going to know the real story.

Either way, the set peice expert who has our best target (McTominay) hitting the corners Is maybe not a great loss.

It's part of the game now tho so hopefully he's replaced by someone better.

Paper report I read said his dad is ill and his job at Villa is more intense with Champions League football. A change up may be the best for everyone anyway.