Newcastle United head coach Eddie Howe believes his team aren’t making the most of their set pieces this season.

Newcastle United are yet to really ‘click’ when it comes to set pieces this season - that’s the view of head coach Eddie Howe, speaking before the Carabao Cup clash with Bradford City.

The Magpies begin their defence of the competition this evening at St James’ Park and do so after a patchy start to the season, in which they’ve managed to win just one of their opening six competitive games, three of which have been 0-0 draws.

And while the Magpies’ attack is obviously coming in from some scrutiny - they’re the third lowest scorers in the top flight - their set piece game is also a cause for concern, despite the appointment of a specialist set piece coach this summer, Martin Mark.

Eddie Howe on Newcastle United set pieces

At Tuesday morning’s press conference, Eddie Howe was asked: ‘Do you think it would take time maybe for that to come to fruition with the new coach coming in and what have you?’...

And this is what he said: “Yeah, I hope not. That's not the plan. The plan is to, of course, make the difference from set plays. I think we've been really good in that respect for a long time.

“And I think when you look at games like the Bournemouth game, if you play as we did, defend as we did and you nick the game 1-0 on a set play, you'd say it's the perfect away performance. But of course we didn't. So I think we have work to do in that respect. And we have the players, we have the height, I think we have the delivery.

“But something's not quite clicking. And that's not a criticism of any coach. That's a criticism of me, you know, I'm ultimately responsible for it. So we've got work to do. We can do better in that respect.”

Newcastle United appoint Martin Mark - statement, July 2025

Newcastle United can announce the appointment of Martin Mark as first team set-piece coach.

Martin joins the Magpies from FC Midtjylland in his native Denmark, where he spent three-and-a-half years in a similar role.

The 31-year-old implemented an innovative set-piece strategy that has yielded impressive results under head coach Thomas Thomasberg.

FC Midtjylland won the 2023/24 Danish Superliga title and finished top of the regular season table once again in 2024/25, with 27 of their 64 league goals scored from set pieces during the most recent campaign.

The Danish side also reached the UEFA Europa League knock-out stages last season.

Martin, who also previously coached FC Midtjylland and Aalborg BK at youth level, will now link up with Eddie Howe and his coaching team in time for the Magpies’ first pre-season friendly away to Celtic on Saturday 19th July.