Ex-Liverpool coach calls out Arsenal and former team for 'ugly' play as new trend emerges

There was a time, not long ago, when long throw-ins were sneered at and seen as a tactic beneath the top teams.

“You cannot say it is football anymore,” complained Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger in 2010 during the era of Rory Delap’s missiles at Stoke. “It is more rugby on the goalkeepers than football.”

Well, shield your eyes Mr Wenger, because long-throws are now the trending tactic in the Premier League. No longer niche, they have become the weapon of choice right across the league. Stats from Opta reveal that there have been 172 long throws into the penalty area in 50 games this season, an average of 3.4 per match – over double any over season in the past decade.

West Ham are the only Premier League side not to attempt a long throw into the box, while Brentford, Burnley, Crystal Palace and Newcastle have all scored from one. Arsenal, who have wholeheartedly embraced set pieces in recent seasons, have joined the masses, hurling 10 long throws into the opponents’ area so far.

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The national team are often seen as a bellwether of trends and Thomas Tuchel was unequivocal recently: “The long throw-in is back”. Tuchel’s assistant Anthony Barry did his university dissertation on long throws in the Premier League, so he should know the direction of travel after 20 throw-in goals were recorded in the 2024/25 Premier League season, having not reached doubles figures in the previous four campaigns.

Another man who is well-placed to comment is Thomas Gronnemark, the world’s only professional throw-in coach. Gronnemark travels the world spreading the gospel of throw-ins and is best known for working with Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool from 2018 to 2023.

Surprisingly, he isn’t entirely delighted by the rise in long throws, believing that many top sides are simply jumping on the bandwagon without properly training them.

“You can say there are many more long throw-ins in the Premier League. You can say ‘isn’t that good?’ No, not necessarily! There are far too many teams taking low-quality long throw-ins. Some of the throw-ins are just not long enough, so they’re not dangerous, and sometimes it’s about the strategy,” Gronnemark tells Mirror Football.

“It’s also about entertainment for the fans. People might think that a guy who coaches long throw-ins wants a lot of them. Actually, I don’t. I don’t want to see every team take 10 long throw-ins in every game because then we have too much start and stop.

“People just look at the best teams and say ‘they’re having real success data-wise, so we’ll do the same’. But they are forgetting that there’s a lot of work, many years’ worth, behind it. You have to do space creation around the opponents’ penalty area.”

Gronnemark used to hold the world record for the longest throw-in, at 51.33 metres, and is evangelical about them, having spent 21 years carving out a niche for himself. His niche is now firmly mainstream – and that is providing new issues for the Dane.

“To be honest, for most teams, throw-ins are a really ugly part because the quality is so low, the ball is being thrown into high-pressure situations where there are duels,” he explains. “There are too many chaotic throw-ins in the Premier League: the level from Liverpool, Arsenal, Manchester United and Newcastle is really low. Possession rates are at around 25 to 33 per cent on throw-ins under pressure. The standard is really low.

“When I was at Liverpool the quality went up, but it’s started to go down again. I think one of the reasons is that they’re only training one or two routines in each zone. Yeah, it can work but your players have to learn to think throw-ins.”

Gronnemark has been working with Brentford, who stand out as the kings of the throw-in in the Premier League, having put 23 into the opponents’ penalty area this season, resulting in one goal, 11 shots and 1.29 xG. That is small fry compared to Gronnemark’s biggest success story, Danish side FC Midtjylland, who he says have six world-class throw-in takers and scored 11 throw-in goals last season under his coaching after managing 35 goals between 2015 and 2018.

As well as Liverpool, Gronnemark has worked with Borussia Dortmund and Ajax and cites a session at St George’s Park with England women which directly led to a goal from a throw-in in the semi-final of the 2023 World Cup. Gronnemark can help players add 15 metres onto their throw-ins, turning them into a real weapon.

“If you’re a world-class throw-in taker, it’s much easier to put the ball where you want with a throw-in than with a corner kick,” he explains. “How many corners hit the first man? It’s hard to kick with your foot. It’s much easier to throw with your hands if you have the right technique.”

Gronnemark gets frustrated watching the Premier League, where he sees mistakes being repeated due to a lack of preparation on the training pitch. “There are a lot of set piece coaches now and a lot of them treat the throw-in like a corner or a free-kick,” he says.

“So they say ‘we can have one or two routines in each zone’. But the challenge is that the opponents’ defending pattern will already mark this from the start then the players have a big challenge. Even with the biggest teams in the Premier League, you can see that if they make one move and it doesn’t work then the players don’t know what to do – they’re getting confused, frustrated because they don’t have a high throw-in intelligence.”

Set pieces are more important than ever, accounting for 27.7 per cent of non-penalty goals in the Premier League this season, more than any campaign in the past 15 years.

Arsenal’s success from corners under coach Nicolas Jover has been well documented and long throws could represent the new frontier. After all, as ex-Stoke manager Tony Pulis told The Athletic in May: “Football goes in cycles.”

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