Written by
Simon Austin
August 22, 2025
Stephen Rice has been appointed as Brentford’s new Set Piece Coach after four years with the Republic of Ireland.
Rice will work under Head Coach Keith Andrews, who was Brentford’s previous Set Piece Coach before being promoted earlier this summer.
The duo know each other well from their time together with the Republic of Ireland, when Andrews was Assistant Manager of the senior men’s team and Rice was the Chief Scout and Opposition Analyst.
A big part of Rice’s remit at that time was to analyse opposition set pieces. In August 2024 he was appointed Assistant of Ireland’s Under-21s.
Before joining the Irish FA, the UEFA Pro Licence holder was Senior PDP Coach (17s to 21s) at Crystal Palace.
Andrews said: “We’re delighted to get Stephen on board. The process to appoint the Set Piece Coach was very thorough – we interviewed people of different nationalities, of different levels of experience, and in different roles.
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“Stephen is someone that I’ve known a long time, we were on our Pro License together, and I was a big part of bringing him into the Irish set-up when I was Assistant Manager and he was with Palace. He had a particular focus on set-pieces in that role.
“He’s a detail-oriented coach, who is very passionate and has a phenomenal work ethic. I’m very pleased he is with us.”
Brentford are the Premier League pioneers when it comes to set piece coaching, with previous incumbents of the role having gone onto bigger clubs and positions.
Nicolas Jover moved first to Manchester City and then Arsenal; Andreas Georgson went to Arsenal, Malmo, Southampton, Lillestrom and Manchester United and is now Assistant at Tottenham; and Andrews held the role at Brentford for a season before replacing Thomas Frank as Head Coach.
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