The Number That Changed Everything
Before the collaboration, Liverpool retained the ball from throw-ins under pressure in 45.4 per cent of cases. After the first season with Thomas Grønnemark it was 68.4 per cent — from 18th in the league to first.
In the title-winning 2019-20 season, 14 of their 85 league goals came from throw-in situations.
That is not a footnote. It is a set piece that occurs twenty to thirty times a match and is left almost entirely to chance in most teams.
Why the Throw-In Gets Wasted
The typical amateur scene runs like this: the ball goes out, the nearest player picks it up, all team-mates stand still and get marked, the throw goes to the centre-back or straight out again.
Three causes sit behind that:
- Nobody moves. A throw-in is the only situation in football where your own team knows exactly when the ball comes back into play. That advantage is wasted if nobody starts a run.
- There is no ownership. Who throws is decided by whoever happens to be closest.
- It never gets trained. Corners and free kicks are in the session plan, throw-ins are not.
Long, Fast, Clever
Grønnemark distinguishes three types of throw-in. The split is useful because it makes one thing clear: the long throw is only one of three — and the one that fits least often.
The long throw aims into the box and works like a corner. It needs a player with the right technique and pays off almost only in the final third.
The fast throw uses the window before the opponent is organised. It is the most effective and most underrated variant — and it costs nothing but attention.
The clever throw is created by movement: one player drags a marker away, another pushes into the space that opens. That is exactly where the difference between 45 and 68 per cent possession sits.
The Fast Throw
The simplest rule you can introduce tomorrow: whoever is nearest the ball takes the throw. Not the full-back who has to run thirty metres first.
Add two automatisms:
- A team-mate offers immediately, without waiting for a signal.
- The thrower looks forward first, then sideways, then back.
The fast throw works particularly well in amateur football, because opposing teams there rarely retreat in an organised way.
The Clever Throw: Movement Creates Space
Without movement, every throw-in is a duel. With movement it becomes an overload.
Two patterns that work anywhere:
- Run away and come back. A player starts towards goal and turns off just before the throw into the space their marker has just left.
- Cross over. Two players run past each other. For the defenders there is a brief moment of uncertainty over who picks up whom.
The cover behind it matters. Losing the ball from a throw-in near your own box is one of the most dangerous losses there is — the same principle as rest defence in build-up, see build-up play in youth football.
Who Takes the Throw?
At Liverpool six or seven different players take throw-ins. That is not accidental but the consequence of the rule that the nearest player throws.
For your team that means:
- Everyone practises it, not just two players.
- Whoever can do the long throw is known — and gets called over deliberately in the final third.
- Technique belongs to it. Both feet on the ground, ball behind the head, both hands. In youth football it pays to show it properly once instead of whistling for it every week.
How to Bring It Into Training
You do not need a dedicated session. Five minutes a week is enough:
- Build throw-ins into game formats. Ball out means throw-in, not the coach throwing in a new ball.
- Set a condition. For example: after every throw-in the ball must stay in the team for three touches, otherwise it counts as lost.
- Practise the movement without opposition, then passive, then active.
- Count it. How many throw-ins stay with your team? That single number makes progress visible.
How to build set pieces systematically overall is covered in the article on corners and free kicks. Anyone wanting to place Liverpool's football under Klopp will find it in Jürgen Klopp's tactics.
5 Takeaways for Coaches
- The nearest player throws. This one rule costs nothing and changes the tempo immediately.
- No throw-in without movement. At least one player starts before the ball is in the hands.
- The long throw is the rarest variant. Fast and clever beat it almost every time.
- Ball out means throw-in, in training too. Otherwise you never rehearse the situation.
- Count possession after throw-ins. Without a number it stays a feeling.