04/06/2025 68comments  |  Jump to last

Charlie Adam is leaving his role as Everton’s Set Piece Coach after less than 6 months in the post under David Moyes.

Before Charlie Adam was appointed as set-piece coach in January, Everton did not have a dedicated, specialist set-piece coach. Under former manager Sean Dyche, the responsibility for set plays was reportedly a collective effort, primarily handled by Sean Dyche himself, along with assistant manager Ian Woan and first-team coach Steve Stone.

On his arrival, when Dyche and his team departed, new Everton manager David Moyes appointed the recently sacked former Fleetwood Town manager to take over the role in Moyes's new management regieme.  Moyes claimed set pieces was an area Adam “excelled in as a player and one I believe he can really help us with now as a coach”.

Unfortunately, Adam's arrival seemed to coincide wiith a significant decline in Everton's widely regared prowess at set-pieces up until that point under Sean Dyche, especially corners. This was exemplified later in the season as Jack Harrison in particular was guilty of numerous balloned deliveries flying high over the goal and far too often well beyond the far post.  

Hopefully, his departure indicates that the Everton management are aware of the poor returns realized in the second half of the season, and that action is being taken to improve in this important area for next season. 

 

Reader Comments (68)

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Colin Glassar
1 Posted 04/06/2025 at 14:03:05
Good riddance. What a waste of time and money.
Rob Halligan
2 Posted 04/06/2025 at 14:05:05
What did he actually do, apart from sweet FA?
Alan McGuffog
3 Posted 04/06/2025 at 14:06:52
Farewell...

A Goodison great!

Danny O'Neill
4 Posted 04/06/2025 at 14:10:52
No surprise to me.

I don't remember him being a set piece specialist as a player, so it was a surprise appointment to me.

Maybe now we can vary our set pieces and stop doing that far post corner all of the time. It works sometimes, but is predictable. Mix it up a bit. Be unpredictable.

Mike Keating
5 Posted 04/06/2025 at 14:11:08
Glad he's gone.

Should have given the job to Sheedy.

Danny O'Neill
6 Posted 04/06/2025 at 14:12:47
Kin hell Mike, did you have to?

You'll start me off.

Sheedy would probably still take the free kicks!

John Hall
7 Posted 04/06/2025 at 14:14:52
Agent Adam can do one!

Baines is the obvious choice for this role, but only as an advisor. He shouldn't be moved permanently from his current role.

Liam Mogan
8 Posted 04/06/2025 at 14:15:15
'Thanks Davey - needed that little wedge, 3 months in Benidorm here I come. Buckfast for breakfast and Full English for tea. 1 euro a pint just off the strip, 2000 ciggies in duty free. 2 mins from the bookies, that'll do for me'
Ed Prytherch
9 Posted 04/06/2025 at 14:34:27
Adams was a dirty bastard as a player and I was surprised that Moyes brought him in. As Colin said "good riddance"
David Milner
10 Posted 04/06/2025 at 14:35:12
Jobs for ex players not good enough for employment elsewhere. Leighton Baines would have been a better choice.
Joe McMahon
11 Posted 04/06/2025 at 14:40:39
Some good news, nasty player, gobshite person and ugly as Les Dawsons mother in law.

Our set pieces didn't improve anyway.

Frank Crewe
12 Posted 04/06/2025 at 14:45:28
There are basically only two set pieces. The shot over/under or around the wall or the precise cross onto someone's head. If there is someone in the side who is good at one or both of these then the manager will soon find out. So the idea that a club needs a coach to teach it is a ridiculous waste of money.
Alan McGuffog
13 Posted 04/06/2025 at 14:46:17
I think it important that we coach our players in taking corner kicks.
It is vital that the ball is placed one centimetre outside the quadrant. And obviously the taker should always remember to raise his right arm before delivering the ball to the head of the first defender on the near post. Sort this and watch us go !
Colin Glassar
14 Posted 04/06/2025 at 14:48:16
Do multimillionaire footballers really need “a specialist” to teach them how to take free kicks and corners? Good lord, next they’ll need coaches how to tie their shoelaces and wipe their bums.

I remember when our dads, and older brothers, would teach us the basics on our street or back garden. Set piece coach, my arse.

Christy Ring
15 Posted 04/06/2025 at 14:49:35
He was always a bitter little red, should never have got inside the gates at Finch Farm, he can head back home to the hobbit shire.
Michael Kenrick
16 Posted 04/06/2025 at 14:53:14
I thought I'd try to boost the credibility (ahem!) of this piece with an AI-generated analysis of Everton set-pieces last season under (1) Dyche, vs (2) Moyes & Adam.

All I got was denials and excuses. I was first told repeatedly that the season was not finished, that the stats weren't available, and would Season 2023-24 do instead?

When I insisted, it said specialist subscriptions were required to access sites like Opta, and it was too difficult to generate the requested analysis.

Pfft!

Liam Mogan
17 Posted 04/06/2025 at 14:56:23
Set pieces (both attacking and defending) are a massive part of the game and if we are to keep up with other teams (best example - Arsenal), then we need a top quality experienced set piece coach.

Not some friend of a friend who once scored a couple of free kicks for Stoke and resembles a pumpkin thats been left on the step for a month after Halloween.

Robert Tressell
18 Posted 04/06/2025 at 14:58:41
You obviously didn’t ask nicely enough Michael.

Alan J Thompson
19 Posted 04/06/2025 at 15:04:24
Liam(#17), Or somebody with a bit of imagination.
Barry McNally
20 Posted 04/06/2025 at 15:21:15
Gutted!

Colin 14, 💯

Joe Corgan
21 Posted 04/06/2025 at 15:23:52
From the picture, it’s difficult to believe that’s a man still in 30s - much less that he was still a professional footballer three years ago.
Kevin Jones
22 Posted 04/06/2025 at 15:34:40
Isn't his agent Moyes's brother or have I dreamt that. Probably needed a tide over for a few months, there you go Charlie nice little earner
Andy Crooks
23 Posted 04/06/2025 at 15:37:21
Our set pieces have been the worst I have ever seen since Sammy MCilroy managed Northern Ireland. No goals in about 1,000 games and every corner rehearsed to the nth degree of utter shiteness. We have been copying it.
Corner taker raises both arms in air, hits corner to first defender, attack over, centre half gives thumbs up to corner taker indicating that it almost came off and it was a fucking beaut of a corner. We have actually had a set piece coach???
The biggest theft of a living since Sid Lyttle shared a parachute with Eddie Large.
Jay Harris
24 Posted 04/06/2025 at 15:39:40
I hope Moyesy has learned his lesson about looking after old buddies instead of using recognized expertise in the dark arts.

I was always concerned that some other teams showed real ingenuity on dead ball plays while we just constantly threw aimless inconsistent crosses into the box for Tarks or the GK to get on the end of.

Scott Hamilton
26 Posted 04/06/2025 at 15:56:31
My hunch is that the powers that be were concerned he had his eyes on the extra 10,000+ Scouse pies BMD was going to need to supply and thought they’d get rid now before it was too late…
Si Cooper
27 Posted 04/06/2025 at 15:58:02
Danny (6), I think Sheeds would only be guaranteed to be great at the role if he could somehow clone and graft on his left foot, or if he’s got some old pairs of boots which have absorbed the ‘magic’ (just like ‘Billy’s Boots’).
Derek Knox
28 Posted 04/06/2025 at 15:58:20
Because of his outstanding work with us, lol, he has obviously been (fat) head-hunted by P S G or Barcelona.

We may just start scoring from set-pieces now, and the Hall of Shame may have another candidate ! :-)

Steve Brown
29 Posted 04/06/2025 at 16:02:09
Maybe hire somebody who has done the set-piece coaching job before.

Daft idea, I know.

Les Moorcroft
30 Posted 04/06/2025 at 16:22:13
How wide are them teeth.
Liam Mogan
31 Posted 04/06/2025 at 16:23:41
Nearly as wide as his head
Derek Knox
32 Posted 04/06/2025 at 16:31:35
Les and Liam, he can always get seasonal work as a male model, for Turnip Lanterns at Halloween ? :-)
Jack Convery
33 Posted 04/06/2025 at 16:36:25
Arsenal would not have finished 2nd but for their set piece coach. Vitally important these days. Someone with the surname Eve, after all, she was the one with the balls, in the Garden of Eden.
Mike Keating
34 Posted 04/06/2025 at 16:36:33
Danny @ 6
Don't wish to rub it in but couldn't resist;
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kPUt6L9ncaI
Andy Meighan
35 Posted 04/06/2025 at 16:53:02
Must be going to Turkey to get his teeth sorted.
Paul Kossoff
36 Posted 04/06/2025 at 17:37:12
Andy 23. "The biggest theft of a living since Sid Lyttle shared a parachute with Eddie Large." 😀😀😀😀😀
Andrew Merrick
37 Posted 04/06/2025 at 17:44:36
Alan 19. Exactly.

Some invention and craft please. Rotate through a shortlist and replace one at a time.

Also, why can't we have players swapping positions more during play, some wingers used to have two feet.

Brian Wilkinson
38 Posted 04/06/2025 at 18:03:18
Never a Dyche fan, but will give the guy credit on set pieces, we scored a lot more goals from set pieces than we did under Moyes and Charlie Adams.

Even Martinez had a better set piece record than Adams and he never even practiced set pieces and corners with the players.

Stole a living at Everton, Charlie Adam… good riddance.

Mike Doyle
39 Posted 04/06/2025 at 18:37:06
We need someone on TW to publish a list of set piece coaches we should target.

There are bound to be some good ones in France or Netherlands.

Colin Crooks
40 Posted 04/06/2025 at 18:38:19
I know the word 'dither' gets some poster up in arms, so I won't use it, but did our boy Davey procrastinate a trifle too long when deciding who would get this gig?

"I have mentioned that I want to bring someone in to take care of set pieces and Charlie is one of a few people getting mentioned to me. I have a lot of people enquiring about it. A lot of very good people. I have not made a decision yet, but hopefully we might get close to somebody shortly."

I'm saying nothing......

Terry McLavey
41 Posted 04/06/2025 at 19:01:37
I think we should contact trading standards! Shocking appointment.

Also, get rid of the wool that was pulled over the club's eyes!

Ed Prytherch
42 Posted 04/06/2025 at 19:13:28
The reason that our set piece productivity was down under Moyes is that McNeil was out for much of the time. He is by far our best striker of a dead ball. Now we need someone with the same ability with his right foot.
Raymond Fox
43 Posted 04/06/2025 at 19:19:40
It seemed an odd appointment in the first place.

Just how many coaches does a team need?
A set piece coach sounds like a pretty soft number to me.

We are in danger of having more coaches than players.

Mike Corcoran
44 Posted 04/06/2025 at 19:26:03
Jeez, he’s only 39, what has he been doing to himself?
Ryan Holroyd
45 Posted 04/06/2025 at 19:48:04
I'm all in favour of specialist coaches so I hope we cast our net further than for Moyes's brother's client Charlie Adam
Justin Doone
46 Posted 04/06/2025 at 20:06:56
From junior football to the professional leagues, free kicks and corners are something that result in a goal or at least an opportunity. Same with a good long throw-in. Fine margins can make our break a game and a whole season.

Look at Rugby or American Football to understand what can be gained from a free kick. The lack of specialists in this area continues to amaze me.

Sort it out, gain an extra 6 or 7 goals a season and see what that does for the points tally!

Mike Connolly
47 Posted 04/06/2025 at 20:16:25
One big improvent would be get Big Dunc in to show Beto how to jump and head the ball without ducking down.
Liam Mogan
48 Posted 04/06/2025 at 20:30:13
Just watching Nations League and the set piece coach for Portugal is Austin MacPhee, who is also the set piece coach for Aston Villa.

These specialists know what they are doing and analyse everything

https://totalfootballanalysis.com/article/aston-villa-how-austin-macphee-has-engineered-their-set-piece-success-tactics

Instead of this we employed a man with a head like a Jack O'Lantern

Dale Self
49 Posted 04/06/2025 at 20:35:03
I guess this means more pies for everyone else. Alright, sorry.
Richard Duff
50 Posted 04/06/2025 at 20:58:50
Younger than Ashley Young!!!! Cripes!
Paul Kernot
51 Posted 04/06/2025 at 22:08:56
Did we give him a 5-year contract and have had to pay him off after four months?

That would be about right for us, wouldn't it?

Winston Williamson
52 Posted 04/06/2025 at 22:44:07
Jeez, does regularly playing on a cold, wet and windy night in Stoke do that to your head?

We need to start employing the best we can for every role at the club. This chap definitely failed!

Derek Thomas
53 Posted 04/06/2025 at 23:31:52
I can only remember 1 example of what the commentators like to call, 'A Training Ground Move'.
It was early on in the deal, away to somebody, it was a neat looking switcheroo from wide right to the edge of the box.
It would've been a cracking goal...if it came off...but it didn't (poor-ish initial ball)

And that seemed to be the end of that - back to Tarks on the far post lads.

The best one I ever saw...apologies - it was back in the pre rs days when we used to go to both grounds, because your mates were going and it looked like it might be a good game - and it was...was the Callaghan give and go freekick Vs Inter in the 60s...similar to Gemmills goal Vs Holland.

Matt Traynor
54 Posted 05/06/2025 at 04:41:47
Kevin #22, you are correct. Adam's agent is the brother of our manager. Without wishing to trigger anyone (Don), I think this is one area I hope our club steers clear of - having particular agents wielding too much influence.

I also saw the agent in question was banned from being a company director for 5 years, for taking cash out of a company that ran football tours (pre-season etc). £300k allegedly as a tax dodge. Clubs including Aberdeen, Celtic, Hibs, Everton and Liverpool.

Football has always been incestuous, but the amounts involved these days are astronomical.

Danny O'Neill
55 Posted 05/06/2025 at 05:05:05
Mike @34, I remember that match very well. It didn't look like his best at the time, but he later explained that he had a look at the wall and position of the keeper and decided to go low and into the bottom corner. Genius. Who am I to question the great one?

If no-one had got on the end of that inch perfect free kick for the second one, which Derek Mountfield did, he'd have been fuming.

He didn't need pace or rely on it. He didn't have that much pace. He just played the game at his own pace. Speed of decision in his football brain was more important to his style of play.

I still maintain that Peter Reid was fouled in the build up that led to the ball falling to Ricky Hill for his goal, but maybe I'm biased.

Michael, don't use AI for personal stuff. It's unreliable and makes shit up as your example explains. Like football, unpredictable. Stick to writing the good stuff you do from your own written word.

I'm all for specialist coaches. Set pieces don't just have to be about the 25 yard belters. Sometimes, you see very clever and less obvious ones that pull a defence out of shape, to make space. That goes for corners too.

The obvious one for Everton would be Leighton Baines. He's already on the coaching staff.

On the continent? I'm not sure. Outside bet and little chance, but maybe tempt Andrea Pirlo!!

Steve Brown
56 Posted 05/06/2025 at 05:49:51
Hiring Charlie Adams was not the manager’s finest hour - hiring someone who is your brother’s client but has never done the role before.

A simple, straightforward conflict of interest whichever way you look at it.

Sack the HR director is my advice.

Danny O'Neill
57 Posted 05/06/2025 at 05:56:55
Steve,

It's why, and not wanting to go over old ground, Moyes should not be in charge of recruitment. Just have a voice at the table.

But not make the decisions on individuals.

Ian Bennett
58 Posted 05/06/2025 at 07:01:38
So was it a short term contract?

He's got a better offer?

Moyes has seen hes made a mistake and made a decision decisively. Non dithering Davy?

He tried something different, but it didnt work. Well done Noyes

It was a job for the boys. Naughty davy.

He dithered and made the wrong call.

Don't let him get involved in anything on the recruitment side, he can't be trusted on anything.

Who the hell knows.

Steve Shave
59 Posted 05/06/2025 at 07:04:14
He’s gone…good! Get Bainsey on it man.
Brian Harrison
60 Posted 05/06/2025 at 10:25:26
I have long complained about our poor set pieces sadly Adam added nothing new.

But in his defence, for most of his time here he had Harrison and Garner taking most corners and free kicks, maybe if he had McNeil he may have got better results.

Dave Abrahams
61 Posted 05/06/2025 at 11:30:22
Brian (60) Exactly, the corners were taken the same way before and after Adam’s came——if he was a real set piece coach he have tried something different——he got paid wages for a few months because he knew the manager.
Steve Brown
62 Posted 05/06/2025 at 12:21:36
Ian, good to see you are finally seeing the light about dodgy, dithering, dour Davie!

Sean Mitchell
63 Posted 05/06/2025 at 16:38:36
Waste of time he was.

He should stick to drinking and haggis.

Sean Kelly
64 Posted 05/06/2025 at 19:37:11
Is that the Mersey tunnel between his lips. Done fa and got paid for it. We have to stop this shit of jobs for our mates
Mick O'Malley
65 Posted 05/06/2025 at 21:25:27
Since this set piece coach thing has come into football all I see that they've brought to the game is wrestling each other at corner kicks and blocking opposing players, seems a risky thing to introduce considering they give penalties for minimal contact nowadays, as others have pointed out our set pieces got worse with him in charge
Brendan McLaughlin
66 Posted 05/06/2025 at 21:35:13
Apparently we were 7th best at attacking, and 6th in defending, set pieces last season.


Jeff Armstrong
67 Posted 05/06/2025 at 22:34:14
Ah so it wasn’t James Garner’s fault for his absolutely shite corners that failed to beat the first man pretty much every time he took one, it was Charlie (cousin IT)Adam’s fault.
Sack the ugly cnut.
Ryan Holroyd
68 Posted 05/06/2025 at 23:15:33
Charlie Adam told James Garner to always hit the first defender Jeff.
Jeff Armstrong
69 Posted 05/06/2025 at 23:30:28
“Jimmy,always hit the first defender, keep the ball low “

“Why’s that Charlie?”

“Cos I’m redshite son”


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