It was reported by The Athletic earlier in July that Arsenal had hired a set-piece coach.
The publication claims that the Gunners had welcomed aboard Nicolas Jover.
Jover spent the first half of the 2019-20 campaign working alongside Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta at Manchester City, before the latter was hired by the North Londoners.
And on Friday, the Spaniard himself confirmed the news via Arsenal’s official website:
“Yeah we had a situation in the summer with Andreas [Georgson], where he had the possibility to leave to his country. He had different reasons to do that and I understood that situation, so we needed to recruit somebody. After looking through what the best solution would be, a person that I know was on the market, was available, is someone whose expertise are incredibly useful and valuable for us. He’s joining us. His name is Nicolas Jover and I’ve worked with him before at City.”
Who is Nicolas Jover?
Well, as mentioned, Jover is a set-piece specialist and that should, in theory, make Arsenal much more of a force from dead-ball situations.
He is replacing Arteta’s first-team coach Andreas Georgson, who has left London Colney after only a year to become Malmo’s director of football.
Although he spent two years under Pep Guardiola at Manchester City, it isn’t strictly a case of Arsenal poaching the Frenchman in light of the fact that his contract at Eastlands had expired.
Prior to his spell at the Sky Blues, Jover had worked with Brentford and obviously impressed enough to land a much bigger role with Pep’s squad.
Arsenal scored only six Premier League goals from set pieces last term – Guardola’s side scored more than double that at 13 – [WhoScored] and that should improve from here on in.
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