Austin MacPhee

[TRO]

1 hour ago, Tom13 said:

Indeed. I posted about that either in here or in the Hause thread. I just hope MacPhee has realised how much of a beast Hause is in the air. I'm sure he has.

I think it has taken some of us sometime....to know his aerial worth.....He is a weapon, in both boxes, like Laursen.

He is not just good at getting his head to things, his accuracy is worthy of note.

With a dedicated set piece coach, now.....Kortney could come to the fore.

[mjmooney]

2 hours ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

In his interview, Hause said, it was actually Mings, who was supposed to be where he was, but they switched it last minute, and Mings told him, to take his role.

Good decision!

The very fact that they did have assigned tasks tells you something. I bet they wouldn't have under Steve Bruce. It would just have been "Get it in the mixer". 

[Vive_La_Villa]

4 hours ago, Stevo985 said:

I wonder if this guy is just REALLY good, or is our improvement just a result of us not putting enough attention on set pieces preciously?

That's not me trying to take anything away from MacPhee, just genuinely curious

I personally think it’s been the improvement on delivery. 

[HKP90]

40 minutes ago, Stevo985 said:

It would just be xG directly resulting from a set piece. If you take a corner and someone gets a header on goal then it's the xG of that shot.

The xG is tracked anyway, it would just require someone to allocate it to whether it came from a set piece or not

Yes and no, in that you could do it like that, but it would not tell you very much about the success of the set piece itself, other than the shot (i.e it would be difficult to gauge the success of indirect set pieces). 

In indirect set plays the movement of players off the ball is way more important in terms of success than an open play shot. If people are crowding the penalty spot, it may be much more crucial that a nearby player drew off a defender to allow space for a header, than in open play where the box is less constricted, there may be fewer players in the box, and the ball in is less anticipated. 

I don't think regular xG would help at all in determining which parts of the set play is working, and which is not, other than the finish, obviously.  

[Stevo985]

8 minutes ago, HKP90 said:

Yes and no, in that you could do it like that, but it would not tell you very much about the success of the set piece itself, other than the shot (i.e it would be difficult to gauge the success of indirect set pieces). 

In indirect set plays the movement of players off the ball is way more important in terms of success than an open play shot. If people are crowding the penalty spot, it may be much more crucial that a nearby player drew off a defender to allow space for a header, than in open play where the box is less constricted, there may be fewer players in the box, and the ball in is less anticipated. 

I don't think regular xG would help at all in determining which parts of the set play is working, and which is not, other than the finish, obviously.  

But you would still see an increase in xG from set pieces if your set pieces have improved. You example of a player moving to draw defenders to enable a better header would still see an increase in xG because the eventual header happens, whereas previously it would not have.

xG wouldn't tell you which PARTS of the set pieces are working. But it would certainly show you that set pieces leading to goals/chances had improved

[TRO]

13 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

I personally think it’s been the improvement on delivery. 

I think its been lots of little things coming together......wins are fine margins and the result of plenty of detail being accomplished.

The focus on set pieces has been monumental and at last we have a dedicated coach to do it ( Dean has too many things to cover in his job to focus on it)  so , he's got someone who can.

I think everyone is on the same page and the synergy has been created by the owners.....Johan Lange, Mark Harrison, Dean Smith, Christian Purslow, all understanding each others jobs and helping where they can.

These owners have got everyone, singing off the same Hymn sheet......To meet the common goal, success for AVFC.

Its a great time to be a Villa fan.....but lets not get cocky, every game is a challenge.......but lets just enjoy the ride.

[HKP90]

28 minutes ago, Stevo985 said:

But you would still see an increase in xG from set pieces if your set pieces have improved. You example of a player moving to draw defenders to enable a better header would still see an increase in xG because the eventual header happens, whereas previously it would not have.

xG wouldn't tell you which PARTS of the set pieces are working. But it would certainly show you that set pieces leading to goals/chances had improved

Like I said, you're not wrong. My point is that, and let's go back to the example, if a pass gets through to an attacker who heads on goal, say from a free kick, the xG will be the same regardless of whether it is a free header or whether it is contested with 2 players. In reality the free header is much more likely to be scored. What it does not pick up in this instance is the efforts off the ball to engineer the free header. Now in open play the same issue exists, but it is less of an issue, since defenders are less likely to be specifically marking the player (there being way more defenders in the box during set plays). 

You are right that you can see whether the overall play is more successful, but then number of goals will also tell you that. What it won't tell you is whether changes to the off ball runs, alterations to movement patterns etc are more likely to yield a goal than previous iterations of the set piece. For that reason it would be very difficult for a set piece coach to use xG to help perfect specific plays. Other than to run them for a few months and gather data points for different patterns. 

Edited September 27, 2021 by HKP90

[MotoMkali]

2 hours ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

I personally think it’s been the improvement on delivery. 

Never new why Luiz wasn't taking them all before. He clearly had the best curl and power on his shots when he has time to get it out of his feet. That directly translates to set pieces. 

[MotoMkali]

1 hour ago, HKP90 said:

Like I said, you're not wrong. My point is that, and let's go back to the example, if a pass gets through to an attacker who heads on goal, say from a free kick, the xG will be the same regardless of whether it is a free header or whether it is contested with 2 players. In reality the free header is much more likely to be scored. What it does not pick up in this instance is the efforts off the ball to engineer the free header. Now in open play the same issue exists, but it is less of an issue, since defenders are less likely to be specifically marking the player (there being way more defenders in the box during set plays). 

You are right that you can see whether the overall play is more successful, but then number of goals will also tell you that. What it won't tell you is whether changes to the off ball runs, alterations to movement patterns etc are more likely to yield a goal than previous iterations of the set piece. For that reason it would be very difficult for a set piece coach to use xG to help perfect specific plays. Other than to run them for a few months and gather data points for different patterns. 

xG factors in the positions of the striker, goal keeper and defenders. 

[HKP90]

Just now, MotoMkali said:

xG factors in the positions of the striker, goal keeper and defenders. 

I thought it was only based on distance, angle, type of assist, and type of shot (ie head or foot). If it does include defender position, then apologies, my mistake. 

[KentVillan]

2 hours ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

I personally think it’s been the improvement on delivery. 

This is down to Macphee, though. He's clearly put thought into who should take which set piece in which position, in far greater depth than was happening before.

So far I've seen McGinn, Luiz, Bailey, Targett, El Ghazi, and Buendia all take set pieces (might even be missing a couple here?) and it never looks like the players are arguing over who it should be. That suggests there's a clear plan ahead of each game and in each area of the pitch.

I also think the player taking the setpiece is getting clearer instructions about how to play the ball in - curled, floated, powered, etc - and that's being drilled on the training ground.

All of this must be led by MacPhee. What I'm most impressed by is how quickly he's managed to get all these instructions to the players in a way that they can execute. Our set pieces are really, really good, and there are loads of different routines. This kind of thing is very common in sports like rugby and American football, but football has always been a bit more disorganised for various reasons.

[Keyblade]

7 hours ago, VillaJ100 said:

I still have PTSD about those terrible Westwood glided balls to the back post under Lambert. Did we ever score from one? EVER?

That was a Lambert (Benteke?) tactic as Westwood seems to whip em in like Luiz did at the weekend for Burnley now.

[MotoMkali]

1 hour ago, HKP90 said:

I thought it was only based on distance, angle, type of assist, and type of shot (ie head or foot). If it does include defender position, then apologies, my mistake. 

I believe it does, because it has to account for the probability of a blocked shot 

[maqroll]

4 hours ago, TRO said:

I think it has taken some of us sometime....to know his aerial worth.....He is a weapon, in both boxes, like Laursen.

He is not just good at getting his head to things, his accuracy is worthy of note.

With a dedicated set piece coach, now.....Kortney could come to the fore.

And 3 at the back might become etched in stone. So far so good,  anyway.

Edited September 27, 2021 by maqroll

[Vive_La_Villa]

1 hour ago, MotoMkali said:

Never new why Luiz wasn't taking them all before. He clearly had the best curl and power on his shots when he has time to get it out of his feet. That directly translates to set pieces. 

Didn’t Jack take most of them?

[Made In Aston]

Already becoming a cult hero

[HalfTimePost]

If he is as good as we think and is having the impact we like to think he is... How long until he outgrows Set Piece Coach as his job title? 

[mjmooney]

5 minutes ago, HalfTimePost said:

If he is as good as we think and is having the impact we like to think he is... How long until he outgrows Set Piece Coach as his job title? 

He's good at shouting, that's a start. 

[commander]

On 27/09/2021 at 09:48, VillaJ100 said:

I still have PTSD about those terrible Westwood glided balls to the back post under Lambert. Did we ever score from one? EVER?

I have PTSD about Westwood. Jees he was so awful for us. The weakest player I've ever seen

[MentalM]

19 hours ago, Stevo985 said:

xG wouldn't tell you which PARTS of the set pieces are working. But it would certainly show you that set pieces leading to goals/chances had improved

If we are really inventive perhaps the xG metrics have not picked up similar positions and it would not give an increase in xG