Aston Villa announced on Tuesday that Austin MacPhee has joined the club as their new specialised set-piece coach, and that appointment has had a lot of Villa supporters talking on social media.
The 41-year-old, who retired as a player back in 2006, has held numerous assistant roles in recent years. He worked alongside Michael O’Neill with Northern Ireland, while also being a number two with Hearts, St Mirren and most recently FC Midtjylland.
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The Express and Star suggest that it was with Hearts where MacPhee’s set-piece coaching reputation began.
Reports at the beginning of July claimed that Villa were looking to bring in a set-piece coach, and Dean Smith has seemingly had his wish granted with the appointment of MacPhee.
Smith knows what it’s like to work with a set-piece coach during his time as Brentford boss, and MacPhee’s work will hopefully help Villa with the small margins of attacking and defending dead-ball situations.
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Villa fans react
@villareport shared the news regarding MacPhee on Tuesday lunchtime. Here is what these fans had to say in reply, with one labelling it as ‘great’ and a few now hoping to see free kick specialist and reported Villa transfer target James-Ward-Prowse follow MacPhee to the Midlands.
“To work alongside JWP? good timing”
“it’s all happening”
“ANNOUNCE WARD-PROWSE”
“Great bit of business this. We’ve under utilised set pieces since the days of Laursen & Mellberg. Could be the difference this”
“YEEEEESSSSS FINALLY”
“Needed”
“Need Ward-Prowse or otherwise there is absolutely no point”
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