Is a proper throw-in really too much to ask for?
Modern players have forgotten how to complete one of the most basic skills – and it drives me mad, writes Jim White
More than 35 per cent of throw-ins end up gifting possession to the opposition
There is one sporting subject on which I have found myself becoming increasingly fogeyish. As I watch the brilliance of the Premier League, the athleticism, the skill, the tactical acumen of it all, my irritation seems to grow: why is it, that despite all this excellence, nobody knows how to take a throw-in any more?
My particular bugbear is Antonio Valencia of Manchester United. As a full-back, it is part of the United captain’s duties to chuck the ball to a team-mate from the touchline. But his throw-ins are inept, feeble things, which barely seem to travel more than a couple of metres, usually straight to the feet of an opponent.
Worse, they are thrown with his hands forward of his forehead, in a manner which, in the ever dimmer and more distant past when I played at full-back, would have been called a foul throw. I thought my growing annoyance was an embarrassingly singular thing until, at a United game last season, I mentioned it to my neighbour, who proceeded to go into a 10-minute meltdown about the utter uselessness not just of Valencia and his foul flicks, but of modern throw-ins in general.
“They tell them about nutrition and coach them how to run quicker than Usain Bolt,” he said. “Why on earth can’t they teach them how to throw the ball in properly?”
Well, it seems me and my enraged companion are not alone in our indignation. At Anfield, Jurgen Klopp has just engaged the services of the Premier League’s first specialist throw-in coach.
Thomas Gronnemark is a Dane who established the world record with a throw of 56 yards – the kind of distance that was previously assumed only to occur in the most vivid of Neil Warnock’s dreams. But it is not the secret of length Klopp hopes his new coach will deliver to the Liverpool squad. It is accuracy.
The throw-in is a part of the game that has long been taken for granted. A minor detour compared to the important things like working on the defensive press or honing the transition. No one ever seems to practise it. Or indeed use it.
Apparently, Gareth Bale can launch a ball further than some of us go on our holidays, but when was the last time Real Madrid encouraged him to chuck one into the mixer? Throw-ins have become one of those things that just happen, a pointless aberration.
Yet most Premier League matches will see around 50 awarded. Worse, statistics suggest more than 35 per cent of throws end up gifting possession to the opposition. Although in Valencia’s case, that seems rather optimistic.
Seeing such profligacy in action, Klopp took a leaf from the Gareth Southgate coaching manual.
At the summer’s World Cup, the England manager ignored the fondly held belief of his predecessors that penalty shoot-outs could not be practised. As a result of careful preparation, and against all expectation, his team won the one shoot-out in which they participated.
The Liverpool manager likewise believes that there is nothing that cannot be practised. Even the apparently unimportant things. Why continue with the apparent assumption that throw-ins look after themselves when, with a bit of organisation and coaching, you might achieve a marginal gain?
Time will tell if such attention to detail has any significant bearing on Liverpool’s title ambitions.
But if Klopp and his Danish accomplice succeed in reviving the art of the throw-in, I doubt I will be alone in congratulating them.
Now all we would need is someone to teach the modern generation how to take a proper corner.