Why did Liverpool hire a ‘Throw-In’ coach?

Liverpool, under Jurgen Klopp, for the last couple of years have been one of the best teams in the world. Trickery of Salah and Mane, pace and precision of Trent and Robertson, and solidarity with Van Dijk at the back makes Liverpool a very enjoyable team to watch. Top training facilities, excellent medical and training staff, and a much-valued sport science department means Liverpool have one of the best supports behind the scenes to perform on the pitch. Despite all that why did Liverpool hire a throw-in coach?

Arsene Wenger, after losing to Stoke City 2-1 with both goals coming from long throw-ins from Rory Delap, questioned the importance of the rule of throw-ins. He suggested that throw-ins should be scrapped in favour of kick-ins or giving the possession of the ball. His reasoning being throw-ins caused loss of possession for the team that wins the throw-in and it also caused the game to slow down taking away the momentum. Well, if we look at the stats, he was not wrong.

A football game is 90 minutes long however, ball is never in the play for that long. Although, added time is supposed to make up for the time lost during the game, that is just not enough. One might think most of the time lost during the game is due to injuries but that is not true. Injuries during the match only account for an average of 4 minutes and 12 seconds per match. As for throw-ins that number goes up to 7minutes and 47 seconds.

That is not all, throw-ins, a dead ball situation, are different from free kicks. It is much easier for players to find a pass and keep possession of the ball with much greater range and angle in case of freekicks. Also, depending on the area of the pitch the free pitch from which the free kick is being taken, players can decide to make a shorter pass or a longer pass or cross it into to the penalty area to create a goal scoring opportunity. It is very rare that a team losses ball possession straight after a freekick.

So why not scrap throw-ins and let players kick the ball in if it goes out of play. Gary Lineker also argued that football is meant to be played with your feet, so it makes sense have kick-ins. Futsal, an indoor variant of football applied this new rule of kick-ins back in 2006. And as expected it did make the game faster. A time limit of 4 seconds was also added for kick-ins to make sure there was no time wastage.

Does that mean Wenger was right? Should football have kick-ins instead of throw-ins? Well, to answer that we need to look at the bigger picture. Throw-ins are only one of the few dead ball situations in football. While throw-ins account for 7 minutes 47 seconds per match, free kicks account for 10 minutes 14 seconds, goal kicks 6 minutes 23 seconds, and corner kicks 5 minutes 7 seconds. If throw-ins were scrapped in favour of kick-ins, it would create the same situation as free kicks. Players will try to make the best out of the it and try to make clever passes resulting in more time. And looking at average number of each dead ball situation during a match, throw-ins with 47, free kick 33, goal kicks 17, and corner kicks 10, scrapping throw-ins with the argument of time wastage will prove wrong if players start taking more time with kick-ins. One way to limit that would be to introduce time limit and ban on elevated kick-ins, but that would not necessarily be any different from throw-ins. In case of retaining the possession of the ball teams are often focused on how to defend a throw-in rather than taking advantage of it.

Therefore, to suggest scrapping of throw-ins after losing 2-1 with both goals coming from throw ins and without looking all the factors, is not a great approach. This takes us to Thomas Gronnemark, Liverpool’s throw-in coach. A good throw-in is where possession of the ball is retained successfully. Liverpool in 2017-18 had finished 4^th and had many impressive statistics but they were the third worst team when it came to throw-ins. Only 45% of their throw-ins resulted in successful ball retention. After just one season with Thomas Gronnemark as the throw-in coach, Liverpool’s ball retention rose to 68.4%.

Players tend to throw the ball down the line thinking if they are to lose the ball better lose it in an area where its less advantageous. One thing Liverpool worked on was coaching players who receive the ball and those to take the throw-in. The range and accuracy of players was key to retain the ball. After Gronnemark’s training Robertson’s throwing distance increased from 19 to 30 meters while Joe Gomez used his long throw skills to win the match for England against Croatia in Nations Cup. Gronnemark also worked on specific patterns of play and positions with the players who receive the throw-ins. This allowed Liverpool to retain the ball and make use of the possession to create goal scoring chances. This was observed when Liverpool scored the winning goals against Wolves and Spurs. Retention of the ball after a throw-in may be less important in the Premier League since only 53% of the matches are won by teams with greater possession however, in the Champions League that number is 66.4% so, balls won from throw-ins is more valuable. May be that also played a part in Liverpool’s Champions League triumph in 2018-19.  

Though at the time it sounded weird that Liverpool had hired a throw-in coach, using tactics even in the smallest part of the sport is nothing new. Sports like basketball have been using tactics much more complicated than this for years. This shows that throw-ins should not be scrapped but instead team should learn to make the best out of it. Champions are only made when they recognise their problems and try to solve them instead of complaining about them. And that’s exactly what Klopp did with Liverpool.

References -

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22404095/#:~:text=Results%20showed%20that%20there%20is,(3)%20occurred%20less%20often.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/333115576_Analysis_of_Time-Wasting_in_English_Premier_League_Football_Matches_Evidence_for_Unethical_Behavior_in_Final_Minutes_of_Close_Contests

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