He should have….analyse other teams’ set pieces and instruct both players and coaches how to combat them
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Manager Ryan Mason
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United employs a Craig Mowson as GK coach, who spent his career in League 2 and until 2019 was an academy coach at Burnley. And their attacking coach is Benni McCarthy, the "storied" Blackburn forward for all of 3 seasons.
Liverpool has Pepijn Linders who never even played senior football, was a coach for AVB at Porto then went to Liverpool under Rodgers and hasn't left.
I don't have time to turn over other teams' rocks, but suffice to say you're completely wrong about what it takes to be a good coach and how clubs go about identifying and hiring coaches. Being a great top flight player doesn't mean you'll make a good coach, and, statistically, actually makes it less likely.
On the list of reasons we've had a shit spring, Mason is nearer the bottom than the top.
If it were true that Mason was just an extension of Levy and Daniel required Conte and Ange to put him on the staff, each of them would have had Mason standing outside the shower waiting to snap up the used towels after training.
The fact that both coaches have given him an “important” role shows that he’s doing something well. Whether that transitions to becoming a top manager or not is to be determined (at any level). There are so many great assistants that never make it as the head man across many different sports.
The fact that both coaches have given him an “important” role shows that he’s doing something well. Whether that transitions to becoming a top manager or not is to be determined (at any level). There are so many great assistants that never make it as the head man across many different sports.
Both their seasons over in October?...
DopeyDavey talking piles of shit as per usual.
Don't think denigrating a CL winner and title winner in a couple of different leagues is the way to defend a player who never kicked a ball for his country or in the CL and who left here to join Hull.
Also think you'll find both McCarthy and Linders have worked for several teams in their coaching careers, not been given a role at one club they used to play for.
Not starting Bale in the League Cup Final defeat against Man City in his second game in charge was enough for me to question Ryan’s judgement. Bale had had the most goal involvements per minute on the pitch out of anyone that season (and the 2nd most in PL history) and had just helped win the game for Spurs v Southampton with a great performance and goal a few days earlier. His reward was to be dropped. Was dumb not to play him from the start and it cost us. Could have made a real name for himself and shown him to be his own man but followed the lead of the sacked Mourinho in failing to embrace a real match winner
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McKenna took his first coaching role at Spurs (U18's) in 2015 when he was 28yrs old
Mason took his first coaching role at Spurs (U19's) in 2019 when he was 28yrs old.
McKenna became (under Mourinho) assistant head coach at Man United in 2018 at the age of 31. McKenna remained as an assistant first-team coach after Mourinho was sacked, then when OGS was sacked through to 2021, under Ragnick he's now 34 by this point.
Mason became caretaker Manager at Spurs following the sacking of Mourinho in 2021 at the age of 29 making him the youngest PL manager ever. He was made 1st Team coach under Conte, then assistant to Stelinni, then Caretaker manager for Spurs again following Stalinni's dismissal. He's now 31. Now at the age of 32 (still TWO years younger than McKenna at this stage) Mason is an assistant coach under Ange at Spurs.
I mean fucking hell they have had virtually identical grounding as coaches. I wouldn't call the League One and Championship "lower leagues" either. Managing Ipswich is a high-profile role for a manager, especially one so young. Mason is still two years younger than McKenna was when he became Ipswich Manager.
So who knows what Mason's next step will be two years from now, it's entirely logical that he will do exactly the same as McKenna and manage a League One Club when he's 34 years old is it not?
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Agree, they have both had a similar trajectory, but with very different success rates...
Sorry to be pedantic, but what ARE The Championship and League 1 if they're not lower league?
I didn't mean it in a disparaging way either, Champo/League 1 are the PERFECT leagues for young managers (and young players) to hone their craft, and improve themselves in a stable environment, without all the added pressure cooker of the likes of Sky's: WIN EVERYTHING or you're an automatic failure mantra, or CERTAIN entitled fans calling for PL managers heads if their clubs DON'T get CL football within a year of them setting foot through the door!!
I think McKenna will get to the PL with Ipswich, and if he does well, will no doubt be cherry picked by one of the so called 'bigger clubs' some day... One of whom might even be US!!
I would call lower Leagues League 2 and below, League 2 being the first rung of "professional" football. The championship is a big demanding League, there are some highly experienced managers in there and McKenna has certainly shown his worth in it this year but he is an outlier, the majority that try to cut their teeth in that league don't do very well and even more importantly they fail to communicate their philosophy as they end up chasing results rather than developing themselves and their ideas.
McKenna was highly rated when he was with us, just as many others with him at the time like Matt Wells etc. Basicly the group put together by McDermott was highly sought after. (I think it's hard for us on the outside of academy football to truly evaluate a coach's ability as they work with so many different caveats (First team manager taking the academy players as cones in their training sessions the day before their games etc), its not about winning stuff, it's developing individuals against certain measures etc.. So we have to go on vibes coming out of the Club and what other people are saying about them further afield and McKenna was always positively talked about and ultimately poached away from us (just as Liverpool have done to a number of our other staff previously).
But McKenna is 7 years older than Mason and started his development as a coach much earlier than Mason, although their first responsible coaching roles managing/developing a team came at exactly the same time when they were 28.
But they have practically mirrored their careers to date.
I think the only difference between them is since McDermott left there has been little fanfare coming out of the academy, no coaches getting highlighted for being good and one to look out for. The good vibes for McKenna all steemed from this era of his career, they absolutely weren't proven when assistants to Mourinho, OGS & Ragnick as these teams have largely been shit.
Mason only picks up bad vibes from our own fans based on absolutely nothing other than they didn't like him as a player (even though he was Poch's number 1 disciple, the first person he entrusted from the academy, the first person whom he publicly said was the first player to get what he wanted (he said this in Australia pre-season) odd fucking bunch, many though think it would be great to have Vertonghen coach at Spurs, but don't see them saying that he has to manage Preston North End first or whoever.
In short, Mason has worked under some of the biggest managers in the game, he's seen them go tits up too. He's played and coached a wide spectrum of styles and is currently picking up new feathers to put in his cap working for Ange who's got even more differences to those that have gone before him. Few aspiring coaches have had this exposure not to mention 13 PL games, a League Cup Final, in fact, that's more experience than McKenna had at the age of 32! McKenna hadn't managed his first professional league game until he was 34.
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I was being literal, as in the Championship, Leagues 1&2 are lower Leagues than the Premier League...
It's not an issue of opinion, it's like insisting that 3 is a bigger number than 5... It just isn't!
Not to say the quality isn't of a high quality, it is, but not as high as the PL...
Funnily enough, the World Cup ®Greatest Football Tournament on Earth™© *citation needed! is arguably a lower level of quality than the Premier League ... So I guess 'lower level' football IS subjective after all!
Interesting…
It’s probably about time he flew the nest, and continued his development elsewhere.
I don’t mean that in a nasty way. Experiencing different clubs, countries and cultures will help him to grow as a coach/manager
Agreed.
It is time for him to try his hand at being head coach. It's not a position suitable for everyone. But he won't know until he tries.
Would be an amazing first job for him. He probably needed to move on for his own sake but thought that might be post Ange. Good luck to him though.
I get the feeling that Ange would actively encourage his coaching staff to learn from him for only a short while, and then take on roles elsewhere.
Chris Davies is a good example, only stuck around for a year and then moved on.
Vertonghen is playing there and has already done most of his coaching badges so maybe Mason can make Jan a player-coach and have him as his assistant when he retires from playing.
