Andrews appointed Set Piece Coach at Brentford
![Keith Andrews: Joins Brentford from Sheffield United, where he was First Team Coach Keith Andrews: Joins Brentford from Sheffield United, where he was First Team Coach](/assets/components/phpthumbof/cache/IMG_9551.86ab998d9ca2534b02f43c593a157cbb.jpg)
Keith Andrews: Joins Brentford from Sheffield United, where he was First Team Coach
Written by Training Ground Guru — July 15, 2024
Former Republic of Ireland player and coach Keith Andrews has been appointed as the new Set Piece Coach at Brentford.
The 43-year-old joins from Sheffield United, where he has been First Team Coach since December 2023. Andrews was also assistant to Stephen Kenny during his three-year spell as Republic of Ireland manager from 2020 to 2023 and served as MK Dons Assistant in 2015/16.
The former midfielder played for Wolves, Hull City, MK Dons and Blackburn Rovers during a 16-year playing career, as well as earning 35 caps for the Republic of Ireland.
Brentford director of football Phil Giles said: “Everyone at Brentford is extremely happy to see Keith join us. He is someone we have known for a while and always had in mind for a role at some point in the future.
“Whilst he has had more wide-ranging coaching roles in the past, focusing on set pieces as a specialism is something which we think he has the qualities to do extremely well, and I’m sure that our staff can help him develop as a coach too. Set pieces are an important part of what we do well and I’m sure we’ll maintain those standards with Keith in charge.”
Brentford are pioneers of specialist set piece coaching. Their first Set Piece Coach - and the first in English football - was Italian Gianni Vio in 2015/16. Frenchman Nicolas Jover followed from 2016 to 2019 and went on to work for Manchester City and now Arsenal.
Next up was Andreas Georgson, who was again hired by Arsenal and went to Malmo, Southampton and now Lillestrom, where he is Head Coach. Brentford’s most recent Set Piece Coach was the Mexican Bernardo Cueva, who has just joined Chelsea after almost four years with the Bees.
In addition, Jack Wilson, who was Assistant First Team Performance Analyst at Brentford from 2020 to 2022, has just been appointed as Set Piece Coach at Wolves after a spell as Set Piece Analyst at Manchester City.
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Billy Coulston is a former First Team Analyst at Newcastle United and an expert on set pieces.
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Former Brentford Assistant Brian Riemer has previously spoken about set pieces being ingrained in the culture of the West London club.
“When I first came to Brentford I thought this focus on set pieces was a waste of time and resources and the players would never embrace it," Riemer admitted in an interview in 2021. “I was obviously proved wrong.
“It’s something the entire club wants to be really good at and, therefore, we always spend time on set pieces at training. We have a set-piece playbook covering every situation, including kick-offs, throw-ins, corners, wide free kicks and central free kicks. This is what benefits us.
“We believe there are about 60 set-piece situations in every game, which means it’s basically 60 times that you can potentially create a chance of scoring. I know you don’t do that every time but it’s 60 opportunities, and considering how much work goes into creating chances in open play, it makes sense to make use of all these situations.”
Brentford advertised the Set Piece Coach role on TGG Jobs and the key responsibilities were as follows:
- Take ownership for maintaining and improving the Brentford FC Set Piece Play Book.
- Be responsible for embedding the set piece principles based on the Play Book into the first team squad, via on the grass coaching, team and group analysis sessions, and one-to-one analysis and coaching with individual players.
- Analyse upcoming first team opponents and design strategies to maximise our set piece output against those opponents, aligned to our set piece principles.
- Working with the head coach, design the training week to ensure that sufficient coaching time goes into working with the players on the grass to finalise the set piece strategy for the next opponent.
- Ensure that all set piece coaching is high energy, engaging, detailed and clear for the players.
- Take a lead role on match days to provide clear information to the players before and during the game, and analyse our opponents defensive set piece set-up to ensure real-time adjustments are made to our strategy in order to maximise our opportunities and make use of our key strengths.
- Review our set piece performance after every game and feedback to staff and players about our strengths and weaknesses.
- Advise the recruitment team about requirements for new players aligned to the set piece strategy, and spend time watching and reporting on potential future signings.
- Keep abreast of other team’s set piece strategies and use this to take inspiration for developing and improving the Set Piece Play Book.
- Work with our analysts and data department to continually review and improve the metrics by which we measure our set piece strengths and weaknesses.
- As requested by the Director of Football, provide analysis and key metrics regarding set pieces for use in board meetings, strategy meetings, or any other relevant meeting or report.
- Adopt a positive and progressive attitude to set pieces around the training ground and take a lead role to ensure that all players and staff understand the importance of set pieces for the Club.
SET PIECE SPECIALISTS IN THE PREMIER LEAGUE
- Arsenal: Nicolas Jover
- Aston Villa: Austin MacPhee
- Bournemouth: -
- Brentford: Keith Andrews
- Brighton: Nick Stanley
- Chelsea: Bernardo Cueva
- Crystal Palace: -
- Everton: -
- Fulham: -
- Ipswich Town: -
- Leicester City: Andrew Hughes
- Liverpool: TBC
- Manchester City: Carlos Vicens
- Manchester United: -
- Newcastle United: -
- Nottingham Forest: -
- Southampton: -
- Tottenham: -
- West Ham: -
- Wolves: Jack Wilson