MacPHEE IS WORTH HIS WEIGHT IN GOALS
Villa boss Smith hails ‘edge’ provided by new Scots coach
FOR someone who specialises in data precision, Austin MacPhee can be a hard man to pin down. Just a few weeks ago he was in his adopted Danish home town of Herning, helping Midtjylland manager Bo Henriksen mastermind Celtic’s Champions League elimination.
On Tuesday, he could be found at Barrow’s Holker Street ground, berating Aston Villa’s fringe players for a lapse in concentration as they defended a throw-in during a Carabao Cup tie.
This Wednesday, he’ll be back in Denmark, embarking on yet another new career chapter as a member of the Scotland national team’s backroom staff.
For Steve Clarke, the logic behind the appointment is simple — if MacPhee can help give his team even a slight edge as they attack or defend set-pieces, it could make all the difference to Scotland’s hopes of qualifying for next year’s World Cup in Qatar.
Villa boss Dean Smith takes a similar view. Formerly manager of Midtjylland’s sister club, Brentford, Smith is steeped in the ethos of data analysis and contends that the addition of MacPhee could make his club a fortune come the end of the Premier League season.
‘You can never get away from the fact you need to do the basics first and foremost,’ said Smith (below).
‘But any little marginal gains that you can grab… if we had improved our set-pieces by just three per cent last season that would have put us in the top eight.
‘That adds to the value of the football club because moving up three or four places is worth millions of pounds.
‘Austin was highly-rated. He was working with Midtjylland, so I knew of him anyway. We touched base with him, he has come in and been everything we expected.’
MacPhee has long divided opinion among Scottish football’s commentariat, but last weekend his methods entered the conversation on the Match of the Day sofas.
Despite Villa’s 2-0 win over Newcastle United owing everything to the execution of two set-plays, pundit Danny Murphy scoffed at the notion of adding a dedicated coach, prompting a lively discussion with host Gary Lineker and fellow analyst Jermaine Jenas.
As far as Smith is concerned, there is no argument.
The manager reasons that his overarching responsibilities offer little time for the sort of numbercrunching and microscopic scrutiny in which MacPhee revels. And if the Scot’s comparatively modest wage can help the club pinch or prevent the odd goal, then he will pay his way several times over.
Smith added: ‘People can question bringing specialist coaches in, but they analyse everything to do with the opposition and your own team.
‘They can add the kind of data that you wouldn’t even know where to look for.’
MacPhee has long been a football nomad. An unheralded playing career saw him traverse the globe via pit-stops in the USA, Romania and Japan, while he’s served the national teams of Mexico and Northern Ireland as a coach.
He helped St Mirren lift the League Cup under Danny Lennon in 2013,
the team also featuring a certain John McGinn. He accepted an offer to assist Ian Cathro at Hearts three years later and remained at Tynecastle through Craig Levein’s subsequent tenure as manager, eventually filling in as caretaker while Ann Budge took her time weighing up the appointment of Daniel Stendel in late 2019.
If the 41-year-old never quite convinced as a manager, he has long garnered respect for his work in analytics. Michael O’Neill’s transformational work with the Northern Irish was aided by MacPhee, who played a key role in the side’s Euro 2016 adventure.
The Fifer was also considered for the vacant performance director role at the Scottish FA later that year.
‘One of the reasons we went and brought him to Villa is his record is really good,’ said Smith.
‘He certainly improved Northern Ireland’s setpieces. I wind him up by saying it helped they had Chris Brunt — but, no, just look at the record, they improved. I looked at Midtjylland’s record and they improved, too. Those are the only benchmarks you can look at. For me, he was a really good candidate.
‘I worked with set-piece coaches for a number of years when I was at Brentford and it was something I discussed with (chief executive) Christian Purslow when I first came in here.
‘Our sporting director, Johan Lange, has worked with set-piece coaches at Copenhagen and we discussed it.
‘There are not too many specialist coaches out there, especially in the set-piece role.’
During Tuesday’s 6-0 win at Barrow, Smith kept a relatively low profile but MacPhee was animated, ensuring his organisational message was getting through to the team.
‘Set-pieces are the most boring things that players do,’ said Smith. ‘So straight away the rapport he makes with those players is really important.
‘Personality, character and the way you prepare and plan with the players is so important.
‘So far, it has worked really well. I know what I want from it and Austin can add to that.
‘He can come up with ideas. If I don’t think it’s quite right, I will expect him to give me a good reason why we should do it and we can have a chat about that.
‘That’s no different to any of the other coaches, in general play.’
Villa’s first goal against Newcastle came from a long throw knocked on by Tyrone Mings for new signing Danny Ings to score a spectacular scissors-kick.
The second saw defender Ezri Konsa meet John McGinn’s free-kick in the air, his header leading to the penalty that saw the Midlands side seal the result.
Konsa knew nothing of MacPhee prior to his appointment but offers an endorsement of his impact. He said: ‘I’ve been very impressed with Austin. He’s been really good for us.
‘The first goal against Newcastle from Danny Ings came from something we’d worked on with Austin at the training ground.
‘To see it work in a game was brilliant. I’m looking forward to working more with him throughout the season. Hopefully, he can get me some goals!’
Any little marginal gains you grab can be worth millions of pounds