Arsenal appoint trio of new assistants
Georgson, Molina and Cuesta
Written by Simon Austin — August 30, 2020
ARSENAL have announced that Carlos Cuesta, Andreas Georgson and Miguel Molina are joining the club as assistants to Head Coach Mikel Arteta.
The arrival of set piece specialist Georgson had been widely touted. The Swede was Head of Set Pieces and Individual Development at Brentford, who he joined from Malmo in November 2019.
Arsenal have already taken one coach from Brentford on Arteta’s watch - goalkeeper coach Inaki Cana Pavon, who joined last December. The Championship side have a policy of hiring specialists who can improve their players and many have been poached by bigger clubs in recent years.
Throw-in coach Thomas Gronnemark now works with Liverpool and set piece specialist Nicolas Jover joined Manchester City at the start of last season.
Brentford Director of Football Rasmus Ankerson has explained: “We invest in different types of specialists, whether it be sleep coaches, kicking coaches, to try and raise the level of the players who come in.”
While the arrival of Georgson was widely anticipated, the appointments of Molina and Cuesta were more of a surprise.
Spaniard Molina arrives from Atletico Madrid and is an expert in the tactical periodisation methodology. His background is in sports science and someone who has seen him work at close quarters told TGG he was skilled at incorporating the physical and mental elements of the game into training sessions.
Cuesta was with Atletico Madrid’s Academy from 2014 to 2018 and has been Under-17s assistant at Juventus for the last year.
In August 2018, the Uefa Pro Licence holder spent time with Manchester City, which is where he got to know compatriot Arteta.
In an interview with El Pais, he said that working with Arteta - who was assistant to Pep Guardiola at the time - had been a “highlight” of his trip.
“He will be a great coach,” he said. “He was able to verify the importance of details in elite training sessions and game analysis.”
Spaniard Cuesta began his coaching badges when he was only 18 and can speak English, Italian and French, as well as his mother tongue.
Meanwhile, goalkeeper coach Sal Bibbo, who has been with the club for five years, has left, leaving Pavon in sole charge of the first-team keepers.
Jordan Reece, who stepped up from the Academy to first team ahead of the 2019/20 season, is now Head Physio. He replaces Chris Morgan, who left this month to re-join Liverpool.
As TGG reported last week, assistant Fredde Ljungberg has left to pursue a managerial career.
