Newcastle United have hired a dedicated set-piece coach
Martin Mark arrives as Newcastle United's new set-piece coach
Martin Mark arrives as Newcastle United's new set-piece coach
Newcastle United have announced the appointment of Martin Mark as the club's new dedicated set-piece coach. The backroom staff member arrives from FC Midtyjlland after a three-and-a-half-year stint at the Danish club.
Mark enjoyed a similar role in his native country and has helped continue the trend of set-piece success in Scandinavian football. The 31-year-old has also coached Aalborg BK at youth level.
Mark will link up with Eddie Howe, Jason Tindall and United's backroom staff in the coming days, before taking his place on the bench for the club's first friendly of the summer, against Celtic, on July 19th.
Many will scoff at the need for such a specific member of staff but a growing number of top flight clubs are seeing significant success after opting to put more focus on this area of the game. As such, it is no surprise to see the rise of the set piece gurus patrolling the technical areas during free-kicks or corners.
Liverpool raised eyebrows close to a decade ago by hiring a dedicated throw-in coach, while in recent years the likes of Chelsea, Arsenal, Wolves, Leicester City, Manchester City, Aston Villa and Ipswich Town have appointed set-play dedicated coaches, with some enjoying more joy than others.
Newcastle found the net 12 times from set plays last season and have been known, in recent seasons, to deploy impressive routines on a matchday having worked on the systems on the training pitch.
Howe has often heaped praise on his backroom staff for their roles in that area of the game, with Jason Tindall, Simon Weatherstone, Stephen Purches and others dedicating time and energy to set pieces behind the scenes.
Mark, during an interview with Football In Denmark back in 2024, revealed his day-to-day itinerary, explaining: "I follow the rest of the staff and sit closely with the head coach and the assistant head coach as part of the morning meeting before training. In the training session itself we can work with individuals, so that could be direct free kicks with one player, or a group where we train corners, it could be the starting 11 or the whole squad.
"We try to involve set pieces as much as possible in the training sessions - it could be as simple as instead of starting with the ball still on the ground, you start with a throw in, into the feet, and immediately the passing exercise begins.
"Or we play games where if you win a set piece, you get three set pieces in a row, just to build set pieces in as a as a style of play. But right now, playing in Europe and Superligaen we don’t train as much. There’s a lot of meetings, a lot of individual talks.
"Drawing on top of clips, really involving the players, asking what they think and what they’d do in a particular scenario."
Newcastle fans are waiting patiently for another announcement, this time regarding the club's swoop for Anthony Elanga. The winger has been on Tyneside in recent days and will become the club's first senior signing of the summer.
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