Austin MacPhee

[Ger Regan]

He's showing his value now, which is great.

[Toronto Villa]

He's showing his value now, which is great.

I was going to post the same. Dean Smith seemed to use him mainly as some sort of long throw specialist. It’s is clear he has a lot more to offer than that. In attack and defence. We’ve been creative and Gerrard has also acknowledged what he brings.

[supertom]

It was clear Leicester have issues, as Palace did with set pieces and fairplay to Austin, Gerrard et al, we targeted that and really caused problems. Not to mention the goal against City which was nicely worked and finished too. He's back. But I think generally, across the pitch we seem a bit more 'coached.' Fresh ideas and impetus that had been lacking.

[Ian.]

So, the hoofing from KO and the overuse of the Cash throw and the punt from our centre back might not have been his call after all?

I wonder what when so wrong with Smith’s approach this season?

[Flin5tone]

The long throws should be used occasionally like against Manchester City. I put the blame all on Austin but clearly Smith was entertaining the idea to use it every time we had a Throw so Apologies to Mr Macphee as it seems his skills are really being used in the right way now

[Nev]

No one said that McPhee wasn't any use in his role, we saw that in the first few games culminating in the victory at Newton Heath. From there the sort of tactics that were used sparingly and to good effect appeared to become the default setting and we know what the result was. With the new manager it appears to have reverted back to a considered and nuanced approach to set pieces, directed by the specialist coach. So we saw a couple of long throws in the Stockport City game but none yesterday. Fewer long balls are being hit and booting the ball into touch has gone as well (apart from errors). I haven't seen any silly notes being passed around. McPhee quite rightly pops up every time we have a set piece but his notably absent from the technical area during open play, he was increasingly visible in Smith's last few games.

What baffles me is why Smith let this bizarre change in approach happen? He never played it before in his managerial career, and to the best of my knowledge isn't doing so at Norwich and given the awful result whatever possessed him to persist with such a flawed policy? I suspect we will never find out but my hunch is that he lost control, became too easily influenced by others and didn't trust his previously reliable instinct.

The new manager is demonstrably in charge and using his backroom staff intelligently, and the set piece coach is certainly worth his position but I will always wonder whether Smith would have lost his job if he wasn't appointed in the summer.

[OCD]

I just think Smith had taken us as far as he could. No shame in that because we were mid-championship when he came, got us up straight away, kept us up (with help from the first lockdown) and made us a mid-table Premier League team. Gerrard and his staff seem like they're on another level so we should be able to push on over the next couple of years.

[eamonn]

Posted on the post-match threade but the second goal was a brilliantly-orchestrated corner.

Deep corner to the back post, crowd the keeper with little 'uns (Marv and McGinn), have two big centre-backs towering at the back post, ready to pounce with their noggins.

[darren woolley]

Posted on the post-match threade but the second goal was a brilliantly-orchestrated corner.

Deep corner to the back post, crowd the keeper with little 'uns (Marv and McGinn), have two big centre-backs towering at the back post, ready to pounce with their noggins.

It certainly was.

[Steve67]

Posted on the post-match threade but the second goal was a brilliantly-orchestrated corner.

Deep corner to the back post, crowd the keeper with little 'uns (Marv and McGinn), have two big centre-backs towering at the back post, ready to pounce with their noggins.

It certainly was.

Wasn't it Cash?  What the hell is he doing marking the keeper?  Some sort of witchcraft?

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Take a bath bow, son, Villa have scored more set piece goals this season than any other team in the league.

[Drummond]

Take a bath bow, son, Villa have scored more set piece goals this season than any other team in the league.

It's funny isn't it? People were wanting him out for being useless earlier in the season.

[usav]

Take a bath bow, son, Villa have scored more set piece goals this season than any other team in the league.

It's funny isn't it? People were wanting him out for being useless earlier in the season.

Well, when Matty Cash is running over to the opposite side of the pitch to dry the ball off with a towel and take the throw-in, I think people were right to question the wisdom of what we were doing.  Thankfully that seemed to stop around the same time that Deano left.

[Havencheese]

It felt as if he was being used for the secondary role as one of about fifty Assistants to Smith, getting in his ear all the time. He seemed to be the most vocal one out there, I personally felt his influence was spread too far. As the set piece guru, it seems things are working well. McGinn looked fantastic reclining as a draft excluder.

[Gerrin]

Take a bath bow, son, Villa have scored more set piece goals this season than any other team in the league.

Where's that info from? We weren't even in the top 5 at the start of January.
https://www.sportskeeda.com/football/5-teams-scored-goals-set-pieces-premier-league-season-2021-22