Russell Martin Manager
At the start of last season, Southampton hired specialist coach Andreas Georgson, but he departed four months into the role and was not directly replaced. Despite this, the Saints managed to concede the fewest goals from set-pieces in the Championship last season, excelling in several key metrics. However, in the Premier League, they have conceded the most goals from dead balls, including a 98th-minute winner by Leicester City recently.
To address these issues, the Saints have enlisted the expertise of a set-piece consultant, as reported by the Daily Echo. The club had been awaiting his work permit, and his role aims to support the current staff. Russell Martin, the manager, has emphasized the importance of continuing to improve while identifying individual errors as costly setbacks.
Russell Martin said, “We have fewer attacking set-pieces now, but we’ve been good in the last few games. We’ve hit the woodwork and should score a few more goals. Understand Saints have brought someone into a set-piece consultant-style staff role in recent weeks to address that. No detail on who, but the club had to wait on them gaining a work permit. More from Russell Martin on set-pieces in general tonight but not a radical overhaul. Defending set plays – we can go to Arsenal against the best team and defend amazingly well, for a lot of set plays because we’re under pressure. It’s one on Saturday and one against Ipswich that kills us. There were a few second-phase problems early on in the season, but we have sorted that out. Maybe tension takes over, and they think they’re going to help the team by doing something else, but you just need to stick to the detail at that point. We have a look at everything including that, in the same way, we do with every area of the game so it’s frustrating and it’s annoying that it’s hurt us again. We will have to take responsibility for that, but we have a defensive analyst and an attacking analyst as well, and then a consultant that helps out. Nothing’s really changed in terms of the process of it, and I’d say we do more work on it now than we ever have done. I think the two moments we’re talking about have really hurt us are down to game management and not detail of the set piece or a lack of work.”
Ian Wright commented via @WeAreTheOverlap, “Southampton don’t have one and look at what’s happened. If it’s good enough for Pep Guardiola to have one to close the margins then everyone should have one, and Southampton should bloody have one.”
Southampton saw former Arsenal and Brentford coach Andreas Georgson join in August 2023, but he moved on by Christmas for a management position. Assistants Matt Gill and Colin Calderwood took charge of set-pieces for the remainder of the Championship season, maintaining top performance metrics. Despite new challenges, Russell Martin remains open to hiring a set-piece specialist, yet he is confident in the current coaching staff.
Russell Martin said, “I think we’re always open to it, but it needs to be the right person. I’m really happy with the coaches we have to deliver it. Andreas left not late into the season and it’s the same people that were doing it last season. We did it well, so we have to just keep working to try and improve.”
