In December 2009 Arsene Wenger suggested scrapping throw-ins. The Frenchman argued that implementing
‘kick-ins’ to restart play would significantly speed up the game.
Wenger was not a reliable witness. The previous month his Arsenal side lost 2-1 at Stoke City
with both Potters’ goals coming from Rory Delap’s trademark long throw. That season
it yielded a Premier League-high eight goals
and led to 53 shots.
Clearly still irked, Wenger suggested outlawing throw-ins, claiming that long-throw
specialists boasted “An unfair and unusual strength in football because their hands can
effectively kick the ball.”
Wenger’s view was largely taken with a pinch of salt, but former England striker Gary Lineker
also threw his support behind banning throw-ins, but for different reasons.
“It’s called football” Lineker said. “What's the point of throw-ins? It takes
ages. Just put it down and knock it in.”
The average Premier League game has 47 throw-ins and Lineker was right to point out they slow
down football, especially in England’s top-flight, where a single ball is used.
The average Premier League match sees just 58 percent of action. A standard game lasts
for 96 minutes and 24 seconds including injury time, but the ball is only in play for 55
minutes and 36 seconds and, most likely, that number will likely drop further with the introduction
of Video Assistant Referees this season.
The ritual of taking of throw – which can involve handing off or drying the ball – eats
up around eight minutes per match and is the second lengthiest cumulative stoppage behind
free-kicks. Goal kicks, corners, injuries and substitutions also run down a significant
portion of the clock.
The International Football Association Board (or IFAB as its known) could follow the National
Basketball Association’s (NBA) lead and put a shot clock on throw-ins to ensure they
are taken quicker or simply ban longer run ups. An even simpler fix would be to introduce
the multiball system, which is already employed in the Champions League and has sped up throw
ins by almost one minute per game.
But the multiball system isn’t always faster or fairer. In 2009, Brendan Rodgers’ Reading
were frequently labelled cheats for allegedly instructing ballboys to delay returning opponents
the ball in order to avoid facing quick throws. Former Queens Park
Rangers boss Ian Holloway also accused Reading of sending their own players to fetch the
ball in order to time waste late in games.
Tweaking throw-in rules or formats would only be worthwhile if time was actually saved.
The goal is to prevent scenarios like last season, when 8 minutes and 15 seconds of Cardiff
City’s 2-1 home loss to Burnley was spent waiting for Sean Morrison to take throw-ins
for the Welsh side at an average of 24.75 seconds each time.
Unsurprisingly, the Premier League’s most sluggish throw-in takers are predominantly
long-throw specialists. The Premier League’s slowest throw-in takers are Leicester City’s
Christian Fuchs, former Cardiff midfielder Aron Gunnarsson
and Wenger’s arch-nemesis Delap.
Delap was notorious for sometimes having more touches with his hands than feet in matches.
In a stalemate at Wolves in 2010, for instance, he took 27 throws and attempted just 16 passes.
Throw-ins in the final third or when under significant pressure also eat up more time,
but still tend to be completed within 15 seconds. And the direction of throw also affects timings.
When the ball travels forwards it often moves into more congested areas making
the delivery more complex and time-consuming.
There is no denying replacing throw-ins with kick-ins would significantly change the fabric
of football – probably creating a more direct game – but it wouldn’t necessarily speed
things up. Time-wise, kick-ins would really be no different to free-kicks, which already
occupy the biggest portion of the clock. This is partly down to players running up from
the back or forming walls as well as debating tactics when within shooting or crossing distance.
Lineker probably felt a quick, short kick-in would prove noticeably faster, especially
in non-threatening areas of the pitch. But this would only be true if the ball was prevented
from leaving the ground, thus reducing potential distance covered and – with a weakened threat
as a consequence – would render the throw-in more of a formality than a weapon.
In the absence of making ‘elevated’ re-starts illegal. it’s more likely players would
hoof the ball long when stuck in their own half, much like a goal-kick, and straight
into the box when close to goal. There might be less pressure, though, because
players would remain more spaced out. Defenders clearly wouldn’t stay as close to the throw-in
taker or touchline knowing the ball could (and surely would) travel considerably further
with each restart.
Analysis of all Premier League free-kicks taken last season within five-yards of the
touchline shows them being slower than throw-ins by over two minutes per match. So axing throws
because too many are delivered at a tortoise-like pace isn’t actually helpful if kick-ins
would take even longer.
Of course, arguing football is simply not a game for hands is an entirely different
matter and something every goalkeeper would fervently disagree with.
Kick-ins were, however, introduced to futsal in 2006. They must be taken within four seconds
– so speed is clearly not an issue – but are quite controversial because across many
domestic leagues they have resulted in a decline in goals. In Spain, home of Europe’s top
international team, the switch saw a drop in average goals-per-game from 8 to 7.
Since futsal is played on a smaller pitch, it is logical to make a link between throw-ins
and goals, but in regular football the throw-in-to-goal ratio is not overly important. Aside from
attacking long throws, it is redundant to judge how many throw-ins lead to goals, or
scoring opportunities, given the variables and time between taking one and any form of
goalmouth action.
Instead, a successful throw-in is really just one where possession is retained and the real
skill is to win the ball under pressure. The Premier League average for retained possession
under pressure is, surprisingly, just 48.6 percent making it the worst league in this
category across Europe’s big-five leagues, who hardly boast glowing stats either.
This is in part a compliment to the pressing game many Premier League teams play. You could
argue that English clubs actually put more thought and effort into defending a throw
than taking one. Yet the Premier League does also boast, statistically speaking, Europe’s
second-best team at throw-ins. Liverpool retained possession from throws under pressure almost
70 percent of the time last season with only two-time Danish champions FC
Midtjylland ahead of them in this department.
It is no coincidence that both clubs have the same dedicated throw-in coach, Thomas
Gronnemark, who also holds the world record for the longest ever throw-in at 51.33 metres.
The Dane’s appointment last summer as part of Jurgen Klopp’s coaching staff was ridiculed
in some quarters. Former Everton striker Andy Gray jibed he would love to apply to become
Klopp’s kick-off coach.
Even 42-year-old Gronnemark admits has the “weirdest job in the world” but his impact
at Anfield has been nothing short of astonishing in such a short space of time.
The season before he joined, Liverpool retained possession from throw-ins under pressure less
than half the time [and were the third-worst side in the Premier League in this category
behind only Swansea City and Huddersfield Town.
They also allowed opposing sides to win the ball at an above-average rate of 51.8 percent.
Under Gronnemark’s tutorage, Liverpool’s added time in possession through winning more
throws hasn’t necessarily led directly to extra points, since only 55.3 percent of Premier
League matches are won by the team who keeps more of the ball. But in the Champions League,
possession is seemingly more significant, so balls won from throw-ins are more valuable.
The stats show the team with more of it wins two-thirds of the time [66.4%].
But, naturally, there are some very notable exceptions. Liverpool actually beat Spurs
[2-0] in last season’s final in Madrid with just 35 percent of the ball.
Ironically Gronnemark doesn’t overly focus on long throw-ins despite being his personal
forte. Left-back Andy Robertson has nonetheless improved his throwing distance from 19 to
30-metres, while defender Joe Gomez surprised Liverpool fans with a long-throw assist for
England last November in a Nations League win over Croatia – a weapon fine-tuned at
Liverpool but rarely used at Anfield.
Gronnemark instead prefers to focus on what he terms fast and clever throws. These tend
to be shorter. Clever throws can involve players switching sides to deliver the ball or unexpected
movement and trajectories – the more creative (and often flatter) the better.
Fast throws, meanwhile, are important because they don’t allow defending teams to take
shape. The optimal time to take one is about five seconds after the ball goes out of play.
When thrown less than 15-metres the overall chances of retaining possession are close
to 70 percent. This drops below 50 percent once 10 seconds have elapsed.
What all this shows is throws shouldn’t be thrown out. They have incredible potential
that’s being virtually ignored by practically every football team. There are clearly ways
to speed up the delivery process, but instead of bemoaning the time they take, it might
be better for coaches to focus on a more scientific way
to retain possession. If teams simply won the ball more often, the eight minutes throw-ins
take per match might not be such a deadweight loss.