Jason Tindall role change as Newcastle United put trust in ‘real presence’…
Newcastle United’s backroom staff has been bolstered this summer..
Eddie Howe has revealed assistant Jason Tindall will still have a key role in Newcastle United’s set-piece construction despite the arrival of Martin Mark.
The Magpies have added to Howe’s backroom team this summer by recruiting Mark, a set-piece specialist coach.
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It’s an appointment more than two years in the making, with Howe eager to add more expertise and knowledge to his coaching team and take some of the weight off Tindall, who has been largely responsible for devising set-plays over the last couple of seasons.
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Danish coach Mark arrived from FC Midtjylland, where he gained a reputation for incredible attention to detail. The 31-year-old joined the training camp in Austria and has made an instant impression on the players and staff.
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Howe said: “It’s something we’ve been looking to fill now probably for two-and-a-half years but we needed to find the right person.
“Jason has been doing a fantastic job covering a whole breadth of set-plays, it’s such a demanding job now and the detail we have to go into to be successful is all-consuming.
“We really needed a specialist just to solely focus on that area. So Martin will come in.
“I don’t think he will be able to cover everything, one man, I think we will have to divide it up but he will have a key role and we really trust him.
“We have had a lot of Zoom calls with him over the summer and a lot of in-depth conversations to find that he was not just the right person but the right personality to fit in with how we do things.
“He’s made an impressive start and he has a real presence about him and hopefully he can make a positive impact.”
Tindall will remain a key part of the set-piece coaching structure, along with set-play analyst Kieran Taylor, with Howe insistent that such a key area is too big for just one person to look after.
The duo have already laid a solid foundation for Mark to build upon, with only Brentford, Aston Villa and Manchester City conceding fewer goals than Newcastle (eight) from set-pieces in the Premier League last season.
Newcastle also scored 13 goals from set-plays in the top-flight in 2024-25 – just four fewer than Arsenal, who led the way. However, digging deeper, there is still room for improvement after Newcastle only bagged five goals from corners.
“It’s not a one-man job, it’s too big when you consider that set-plays is everything from corners to free kicks to goal kicks, that’s all for and against,” said Howe.
“To get the detail and the level we want to get to, we have to divide those roles up and that will continue to be the case.”
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