To round off the week, Adam Price takes a look at our third summer signing. Clearly targeted by Miron Muslic, Jack Mackenzie will need to adapt to a new manager.
I’d think it’d be an understatement to describe the last week of May at Plymouth Argyle as “messy.” The Greens entered it with a head coach they had backed, and fully expected to remain with them heading into the 2025/26 season. By week’s end, they were left in the lurch as he made an unceremonious move to former UEFA Cup winners Schalke. The Gelsenkirchen-based side now, as Argyle have often been keen to remind us, play in the second tier of German football.
With all of that going on, it’d be easy to forget that Argyle actually made a signing in that time. On the Friday, before Schalke officially announced Miron Muslic’s appointment but after it became abundantly clear he’d be leaving Argyle, the Pilgrims announced the arrival of 25-year-old Scotsman Jack MacKenzie. A left back, MacKenzie joined Argyle as a free agent, signing a three-year deal following the expiry of his contract at boyhood club Aberdeen.
There had been rumours, though admittedly not from any serious sources, that Argyle may pull out of the deal. As a 6 foot 3 left back, I’ve no doubt MacKenzie was a player targeted by Muslic by his profile, and his departure could have thrown the move into jeopardy. However, he’s here regardless, and I hold out some hope that he could prove to be an effective signing whoever takes on the head coach role at Home Park.
Basics at both ends
Quite annoyingly, there don’t appear to be stats available through my usual sources for any Scottish cup competition. Therefore, I must rely on MacKenzie’s appearances in the league last season for my numbers. Whilst that does knock out a sizable chunk, given Aberdeen won the Scottish Cup, he still made 25 league appearances in all, totalling up 1,951 minutes. The sample size isn’t terrible.
From that sample size, I’ve been able to conclude that MacKenzie is a fairly basic player. And I’d like to make clear straight away that this isn’t necessarily a criticism. Sometimes, being a basic player is absolutely fine, and it’s arguably preferable for a defender. Just don’t expect any barnstorming, Bail Mumba-esque runs from the left flank.
That simplicity shows in both his defensive and attacking play. The defensive side of his game is the most important, and it’s where his playing style provides the best contribution. MacKenzie is the sort of player who makes himself tough to beat, and isn’t afraid to do the dirty work for the benefit of the team. He won 59% of his ground duels last season, comfortably above Argyle’s average.
Perhaps even more impressively, MacKenzie didn’t make a single error leading directly to a shot or goal last season. Argyle made 23 such errors on the whole, and I admit they were under a little more pressure in the Championship than Aberdeen ever were in Scotland. However, MacKenzie’s total of zero is impressive regardless; it suggests that not only is he happy doing the basics, he tends to do them proficiently.
In attack, again I wouldn’t expect to see anything flashy. MacKenzie isn’t the sort of player to attempt a significant number of dribbles, and he’s seldom successful when he does. However, he will make sure he’s in a position to have an impact. At Argyle last season, only two players attempted and completed more crosses than the Scotsman.
| Player | Crosses Attempted | Crosses Completed | Success Rate |
| Adam Randell | 134 | 29 | 22% |
| Tymoteusz Puchacz | 87 | 20 | 23% |
| Jack MacKenzie* | 74 | 12 | 16% |
| Matthew Sorinola | 68 | 10 | 15% |
| Bali Mumba | 48 | 4 | 8% |
| Morgan Whittaker | 36 | 6 | 17% |
In writing all of this, I can’t help but notice the parallels with Gary Sawyer. He wasn’t particularly flashy, but more often than not put in a solid display from left back. Could MacKenzie be the sort of player to deliver a ‘seven out of ten’ performance every week? If he does, I for one would have no complaints.
Pinpointing a position
Ever since MacKenzie was first linked with Argyle back in April, there have been questions about where exactly he’d fit into the side. He’s a left back by trade, but Muslic’s system avoided standard full backs, favouring a back three with wing backs instead. Yes, Muslic has departed now, but he doubtless had an impact on MacKenzie’s arrival. So, where could he possibly play?
There had been a thought that MacKenzie could line up as a left-sided centre back in the back three, akin to Sawyer’s position under Ryan Lowe in the curtailed League Two promotion season. I must admit, I hope whoever takes over from Muslic doesn’t follow this approach, because I don’t think MacKenzie has been good enough in the air to play the role effectively.
Surprisingly, despite his height, MacKenzie’s aerial duel success last season stood at just 41%. I accept that wide centre backs are less likely to need to win aerial duels than the man in the middle of a back three, but that figure is still deficient when compared to Argyle’s other centre back options from last term.
| Player | Aerial Duels Contested | Aerial Duels Won | Success Rate |
| Nikola Katic | 120 | 78 | 65% |
| Lewis Gibson | 57 | 37 | 65% |
| Victor Palsson | 105 | 65 | 62% |
| Maksym Talovierov | 59 | 32 | 54% |
| Julio Pleguezuelo | 100 | 51 | 51% |
| Kornel Szucs | 125 | 63 | 50% |
| Brendan Galloway | 46 | 22 | 48% |
| Jack MacKenzie* | 80 | 33 | 41% |
With that in mind, could Muslic have targeted MacKenzie to play as a left wing back? After all, at points last season he used Kornel Szucs in a similar way on the other flank. However, I don’t believe such a role would be in MacKenzie’s best interests. I do want him to contribute going forward, but I don’t see him as the sort to bomb down the flank and provide all the width in attack and defence.
Ultimately, there’s a reason MacKenzie has lined up as a left back throughout his career. It allows him to defend to his strengths, whilst negating any potential weaknesses in the air. And going forward, there is always likely to be a winger, or at the very least a wide forward, supporting him to get into a crossing position. With that in mind, I hope the new head coach seriously considers the prospect of reverting to a back four, with MacKenzie on the left of the defensive line.
All in all, I’ve just spent this entire section arguing that a player who was signed as a left back should start as a left back. Thanks for coming.
A role in many systems
In terms of shape, MacKenzie clearly suits a back four better than any other option. However, when it comes to style, I’m confident that he can be adaptable, and could prove to be an asset to the side whether the new head coach favours possession-based or direct football.
It can be easy to fall into the trap of assuming that a 6 foot 3 defender is mainly compatible with a combative style of football. I’ve done it myself, and it can be particularly easy to fall into that trap when a player is targeted by Muslic. However, MacKenzie’s numbers from last season tell a different story. If the new man in Argyle’s dugout wants to rip up Muslic’s style and start again, I may have some reservations overall, but they wouldn’t feature MacKenzie.
Last season, the 25-year-old completed 81% of his passes, comfortably clear of Argyle’s average of 75%. And he was always the sort of player to always want to be involved, whether that be in fighting for possession or in some calm, considered build-up play. Per 90 minutes, Lewis Gibson was the only Argyle player to touch the ball more regularly last season than MacKenzie.
| Player | Touches per 90 |
| Lewis Gibson | 77.50 |
| Jack MacKenzie* | 65.37 |
| Malachi Boateng | 63.98 |
| Joe Edwards | 63.44 |
| Tymoteusz Puchacz | 60.47 |
| Brendan Galloway | 59.69 |
Despite initial appearances, MacKenzie isn’t necessarily versatile in terms of position. However, he makes up for that in being able to adapt to various playing styles. Whilst undergoing a head coach recruitment process, that’s certainly a positive trait.
A difference maker
It’d be an understatement to say Aberdeen had a curious season. Jimmy Thelin’s side started the campaign like a house on fire – in October, they followed a superb 2-1 win over Rangers with a 4-1 thumping of Dundee, and were well in the title hunt having dropped just two points across their first 11 league games. However, things collapsed. A 2-1 defeat away to St Mirren followed, and the Dons wouldn’t win a league game again until mid-February. They’d end up finishing fifth.
Why am I telling you this? Well, I couldn’t help but notice that MacKenzie played the lion’s share of his minutes last season at the start of the campaign. When things started to go pear-shaped, Thelin panicked, with Argyle’s new arrival regularly in and out of the team. However, at the start of the year, when his side looked like they may just threaten Scottish football’s duopoly, MacKenzie was playing 90 minutes week in, week out. And Aberdeen were winning.
Those trends are demonstrable when looking at the impact of MacKenzie’s presence in the starting 11. When he was on the teamsheet, Aberdeen won more points, scored more goals and conceded fewer than when he was absent.
| Aberdeen 2024-25 | With MacKenzie starting | Without MacKenzie starting |
| Points per game | 1.74 | 0.87 |
| Goals per game | 1.57 | 0.80 |
| Goals conceded per game | 1.52 | 1.73 |
Now, I’ll freely admit that there were clearly other factors at play. Aberdeen’s supporters will argue (and have argued) that these numbers are merely a coincidence. Their form was always likely to drop off after such an electric start, and it’s merely by chance that their best results came at the start of the season when MacKenzie was starting. Of course, there is merit to that argument, and I’m not about to pretend that the left back was the sole reason for Aberdeen’s supreme early form.
However, isn’t it much better to have things this way around? It’s far nicer to look at positive stats and wonder if they’re a coincidence, rather than looking at negative stats and hoping they’re a coincidence. So what if MacKenzie flukes his way to being a lucky charm during his time at Argyle? That’d certainly do for me.
The importance of adaptation
It’s a point I appreciate I’ve laboured in the past, but it’s always an important one to raise. Much of MacKenzie’s success during his time in Devon will be dependent on how well he adapts to his new surroundings, and a new league.
In this instance, I feel it’s particularly important to drill the point home. Across the window, Argyle have been targeting players with EFL experience. Jamie Paterson, Caleb Watts and even newest arrival Bradley Ibrahim have all played in League One at some stage in their career. MacKenzie is in a completely different boat. Not only is he playing in England for the first time, he’s moving clubs for the first time full stop. Prior to now, his only footballing experience away from Aberdeen was a ten-game spell on loan at Forfar Athletic.
In that sense, I’m drawn back to the arrivals of Nathanael Ogbeta and Victor Palsson last summer. Both arrived with strong numbers from the previous season, but struggled to adapt to the Championship initially, and were much maligned as a result. Both picked up under Muslic though, and I still maintain at least one of those would have been a success from the start had they been played in the correct position. But that’s a completely different argument.
As painful as it was, Argyle’s relegation will aid MacKenzie. It’ll be far easier for him to find his feet in the third tier than it would have been in objectively one of world football’s strongest leagues. Comparatively, he’ll have more time on the ball, and more often than not will be playing in a team with more quality than the opposition.
I hope that aids him. Had we been told Argyle would sign the second coming as Sawyer as their left back over the summer, most would have been satisfied. MacKenzie fits the mould – now it’s up to him to adapt, and to Argyle to get the best from him.