worthingseagull
Well-known member
- Sep 28, 2011
- 1,612
If not, we need to get it
TrackMan shows how players run up to the ball and whether their style needs to be adjusted. Information on where they are striking the ball and how they are striking the ball is also provided.
Typically, players find it tough to put top spin on the ball from close range, but if other variables are taken care of, sometimes it is only important to hit the target. One or two yards on a direct free kick makes a huge difference and some players have started to adapt their style depending on the distance from goal.
Emi Buendia now has a different technique — eagle-eyed viewers would have noticed that in Villa’s final game of the season against Brighton & Hove Albion — and may be more of a threat on set pieces next season.
When used collectively, there are even greater advantages, and that is where Villa have benefited.
Emery, a meticulous planner, leaves no stone unturned in his preparation. So when he inherited MacPhee last November, he effectively put the Scot on a trial period to determine whether he was worth retaining.
In the first week at Bodymoor Heath, Emery watched MacPhee’s sessions closely and liked what he was seeing. Lucas Digne then scored from a free kick in Emery’s first game in charge as Villa beat Manchester United and, from that moment, even more focus has been placed on working through specific routines.
MacPhee has created a “culture” of set pieces at Villa, where every player knows their responsibility and it is much more than just a 10-minute mess-around at the end of a session. There is a purpose to every practice. It is competitive. Inside the training ground, there are charts ranking the accuracy and consistency of the set-piece takers with numbers taken from TrackMan. The data shows how efficient each player is when it comes to taking corner kicks, free kicks or penalties.
From such data, performance can then be recorded, measured and evaluated through specific practice.
Take, for example, corner kicks. Data is presented to players when identifying areas that need improvement, such as if a delivery is over or under-hit. Leading sports analysis providers suggest 95 per cent of first contact from a corner kick, whether by a defender or an attacker, occurs when the ball is between 1.7 metres and 2.4 metres off the ground (as illustrated above).
Corner-kick takers can therefore work on hitting a specific target in practice, with detailed feedback instantly provided via the tracking tool.
If the figures show one player is better than another at kicking from a certain distance out on free kicks, then the coaching team have clear evidence to back up their decisions when it comes to set-piece responsibilities.
Clubs with smaller budgets still choose to track performance manually but, at elite level, the interest is growing as teams seek to limit the variables.
MacPhee was the driving force behind introducing TrackMan at Villa after discovering the benefits when using the technology during a spell at Danish club FC Midtjylland.
As TrackMan’s headquarters are not far away in Copenhagen, FC Midtjylland were the first football club to introduce the technology into training.
Johan Lange, Villa’s former sporting director turned global director of football development and international academies, is also Danish and agreed that it would be useful to experiment with the tool when Villa started to look closely at a more data-driven approach around performance from 2020.
It has taken some time to start seeing proper results. Before the final game of the season, Villa had scored from two of their six direct free kicks from central positions under Emery but were wasteful against Brighton on the final day when presented with four direct free-kick opportunities.
Just by putting in the work, though, Villa have become better equipped to take advantage by focusing on the extra details.
The Scotland national team, who MacPhee also works with, use TrackMan, too. The side, managed by Steve Clarke, have won their first four games in European Championship qualifying for the first time in their history and have scored two goals through set pieces, conceding none.
TrackMan shows how players run up to the ball and whether their style needs to be adjusted. Information on where they are striking the ball and how they are striking the ball is also provided.
Typically, players find it tough to put top spin on the ball from close range, but if other variables are taken care of, sometimes it is only important to hit the target. One or two yards on a direct free kick makes a huge difference and some players have started to adapt their style depending on the distance from goal.
Emi Buendia now has a different technique — eagle-eyed viewers would have noticed that in Villa’s final game of the season against Brighton & Hove Albion — and may be more of a threat on set pieces next season.
When used collectively, there are even greater advantages, and that is where Villa have benefited.
Emery, a meticulous planner, leaves no stone unturned in his preparation. So when he inherited MacPhee last November, he effectively put the Scot on a trial period to determine whether he was worth retaining.
In the first week at Bodymoor Heath, Emery watched MacPhee’s sessions closely and liked what he was seeing. Lucas Digne then scored from a free kick in Emery’s first game in charge as Villa beat Manchester United and, from that moment, even more focus has been placed on working through specific routines.
MacPhee has created a “culture” of set pieces at Villa, where every player knows their responsibility and it is much more than just a 10-minute mess-around at the end of a session. There is a purpose to every practice. It is competitive. Inside the training ground, there are charts ranking the accuracy and consistency of the set-piece takers with numbers taken from TrackMan. The data shows how efficient each player is when it comes to taking corner kicks, free kicks or penalties.
From such data, performance can then be recorded, measured and evaluated through specific practice.
Take, for example, corner kicks. Data is presented to players when identifying areas that need improvement, such as if a delivery is over or under-hit. Leading sports analysis providers suggest 95 per cent of first contact from a corner kick, whether by a defender or an attacker, occurs when the ball is between 1.7 metres and 2.4 metres off the ground (as illustrated above).
Corner-kick takers can therefore work on hitting a specific target in practice, with detailed feedback instantly provided via the tracking tool.
If the figures show one player is better than another at kicking from a certain distance out on free kicks, then the coaching team have clear evidence to back up their decisions when it comes to set-piece responsibilities.
Clubs with smaller budgets still choose to track performance manually but, at elite level, the interest is growing as teams seek to limit the variables.
MacPhee was the driving force behind introducing TrackMan at Villa after discovering the benefits when using the technology during a spell at Danish club FC Midtjylland.
As TrackMan’s headquarters are not far away in Copenhagen, FC Midtjylland were the first football club to introduce the technology into training.
Johan Lange, Villa’s former sporting director turned global director of football development and international academies, is also Danish and agreed that it would be useful to experiment with the tool when Villa started to look closely at a more data-driven approach around performance from 2020.
It has taken some time to start seeing proper results. Before the final game of the season, Villa had scored from two of their six direct free kicks from central positions under Emery but were wasteful against Brighton on the final day when presented with four direct free-kick opportunities.
Just by putting in the work, though, Villa have become better equipped to take advantage by focusing on the extra details.
The Scotland national team, who MacPhee also works with, use TrackMan, too. The side, managed by Steve Clarke, have won their first four games in European Championship qualifying for the first time in their history and have scored two goals through set pieces, conceding none.
