Wolves Set Piece Coach departs after seven league games

Wolves’ first dedicated Set Piece Coach, Jack Wilson, has departed the club after just seven Premier League games.

The Scot joined Gary O’Neil’s side in July, with the manager saying at the time, “I’m delighted to be able to take him from Manchester City and he’ll be a huge asset to us.”

Previously, Wilson had been Manchester City’s First Team Performance Analyst for Set Pieces, working closely with their Set Piece Coach Carlos Vicens to deliver “actionable insights”.

Prior to this he was Assistant First Team Performance Analyst for Brentford – the pioneers of specialist set piece coaching – and has also worked for the Irish FA, Hearts and Dundee United.

However, following Wolves’ 5-3 defeat by Brentford last weekend, it was decided that a parting of the ways was best for both coach and club.

Wolves have conceded four Premier League goals from corners this season, while scoring only one. As ever, context is also important though, because the team have also conceded the greatest number of set pieces in the league, while facing five of the most effective set piece sides in the division, in Arsenal, Aston Villa, Brentford, Liverpool and Newcastle.

In fact they were below their set piece xG for the six games going up to the Brentford match. In addition, it is questionable whether seven league games is long enough for a new coach to implement their philosophy and methods.

At the time of Wilson’s appointment, O’Neil said: “Set plays are a huge part of the game now and the numbers we managed to achieve on them last year were good, but I was fortunate enough to meet Jack and look through some of his work.

“I don’t meet too many people who go into as much detail on gameplans as I do, but Jack is one of the closest I’ve ever met to being as extreme in his detail. The fact we got him in early, for the whole of pre-season, is important for the boys because we’ve started to do a little bit of work and it will start to stand us in good stead for the season.

“He’s got some really interesting ideas around set plays and how things should be done. Last year, as a coaching team, you work hard on set plays, but you all have other roles and jobs you need to fulfil at the same time, but Jack’s focus can be purely on set plays.

“His purpose is to make Wolves better at set plays and he can knuckle down and get into the details, and the players have responded well. If you stand still for a moment in football, you get left behind quickly because it’s moving on tactically. People are trying to gain small margins and it’s important we do what we think we need to do. It’s a fantastic one for the club to get done.”