An Interview With Liverpool's Throw-In Coach
Thomas Gronnemark on why Joe Gomez could be the next Rory Delap, why Barcelona need to practice their throw-ins, and more
In my document of requested topics, I have Paul’s request listed as “make him feel good about Liverpool.” Per Paul: say “as many amazing things about this Liverpool team that you can to make us all feel better considering there is a realistic chance that this incredibly special Liverpool team will be denied a Premier League title due literally to an act of god.” He also asked me to sketch out a realistic scenario for the Premier League’s return to action. We touched on this in a chat last week, and in the time since Paul made his donation, it has become increasingly unlikely that the Premier League season will get canceled and Liverpool won’t be awarded the title.
So, we’re just gonna stick to the broad remit of making Liverpool fans feel good about their favorite team. I recently wrote a piece about Rory Delap’s legendary throw-ins for Stoke City. For the piece, I spoke to Liverpool’s throw-in coach, Thomas Gronnemark, who also works for a number of other clubs. Gronnemark mainly works on helping teams keep possession off of throw-in situations, and while he has been quoted as saying that the optimal throw occurs within five seconds after the ball going out if play, he made a point to tell me ... that he’s never actually said that. Here’s an abbreviated version of our conversation, edited for clarity.
Do you kind of have any special recollections of Rory Delap’s throw-ins?
First, I should say that I'm coaching the long and faster kind of throw-in. In Liverpool and in Ajax, we're not doing any long throw-ins towards the opponent's goals. And it's not because it's a bad thing. For example, in the last four seasons in FC Midtjylland where I'm also coaching, we scored 35 goals after long throw-ins -- somewhat similar to Stoke City. I've also coached a team called Horsens in the Danish Super League. They scored, like, 10 goals after long throw-ins. We had a player called [Mikkel] Menna Qvist. He was assisting 0.25 goals per match after the long throw in -- totally, totally, totally crazy.
Wow.
You can use the long throw-ins as a really, really dangerous weapon if you have players who can throw long flat and fast. Also: if you have built your team up to be a really good set-piece team. As I remember, Stoke had like eight guys over 190 meters in the starting 11. They had Rory Delap and like eight guys standing there; who should you mark? And we know his throw-ins were flat. They were long. They were fast. That's really good.
We are focused on different things in Liverpool. In Liverpool, the 17-18 season before I came in, they were only number 18 out of 20 in the Premier League with throw-ins under pressure at 45.4 percent possession, third-last in the Premier League. The first year I came, last year, we went up to 68.4 percent possession at throw-ins under pressure and went from number 18 to number one in the Premier League. We also went to number two in Europe after one of my other teams, FC Midtjylland.
In Liverpool we scored 13 goals after throw-ins this season, but it's not the long throw-in. Some might say, “Why are you not doing the long throw-in?You have Joe Gomez, he's improved, and he also had a throw-in assist against Croatia”. In Liverpool, we could easily score 10 goals after long throw-ins, no problem. But then we would have to take perhaps eight or 10 long throw-ins in each game. And would you like to see Liverpool do that? Nope. We won't do that because it's a little bit against the playing style.
What I really liked about Stoke is that they would be underdogs and, of course, when they met Arsenal they scored a lot of long throw-in goals. Arsene Wenger wasn't really satisfied, but it was the smallest club against one of the really big clubs and people were just cheering. I think it would have been another situation if, first of all, they didn't have so many players to throw to. Then, I don't think that the fans of a top club would be satisfied with that kind of playing style. With Stoke, with Rory Delap, with the throw-in goals -- it just clicked. I like when teams are really going 100-percent into a kind of playing style. For Stoke, it was set pieces, throw-ins, really physical. Barcelona, it's perhaps even more tiki-taka. Sometimes you play that well, sometimes you don't play that well, but it's fascinating when it clicks. Same with Liverpool, the counter-attacking, the high-press.
On top of all that, it's probably hard to find a player who both has the throwing ability of Rory Delap but then the technical foot-skills of a player that could play for Barcelona.
For me, Joe Gomez is just as good as Rory Delap. You could easily have a player from Barcelona or another club who are playing a top style learn it. That big question is just how would you use it?
People have said, “Throw-ins are the small things, that's marginal gains." And for me, that's totally wrong. There are normally between 40 and 60 throw-ins in a match. So, there'll be like 15 to 20 minutes in the match that are affected by the things you're doing with the throw-ins. For me, that's not marginal gains, it's more like a big part of the game that has just been underestimated.
I've told this story a lot of times. Before I came to Liverpool and Ajax, people thought throw-ins are not a thing you train, and if you do, it's only because of the long throw-ins. But Barcelona are actually a really good example of that. Even the Barcelona players should train it. In the Champions League final between Barcelona and Manchester United in 2011 -- Barcelona had like 70 or 80 percent possession every game -- and they’re dominating Man United. They were up one-nil, and then Eric Abidal, the left fullback, had a throw-in at his own penalty area. There was no movement, no strategy. And he made an unprecise throw-in -- a bad choice, but also bad movements from his teammates. Then Man United got the ball and seven seconds later they scored, 1-1. Barcelona ended up winning 3-1. Throw-ins are important no matter what team you're playing on. For a few teams, it can really be a weapon. But in all other teams, it can really be an advantage to work with all the other throw-ins all around the pitch.
Why isn’t the average team paying attention to this part of the game?
Most of the teams have a really low quality on the throw-in, and the reason why is a lack of knowledge. Many teams are just throwing the ball down the line, and that's just the worst thing you can do. Some coaches say, “Oh, it's better to lose it 30 meters down the line. rather than down here.” Yeah, of course. But wouldn't it be better just to keep it?
It's not only about hitting your teammates. What does it matter if you're throwing to a teammate and he passes it on to a guy, he loses the ball, and you can't really use that first pass for anything? So we work on “how can we get out of pressure?” For example, three of the 13 goals we scored in Liverpool after throw-in situations were when the opponents had a throw-in and we had some specific pressure.
It's not about scoring goals in the last third of the pitch. Of course, we're trying to do that. We scored the winner here against Wolves this season and against Tottenham after throw-in situations, but in my philosophy we also want to score a goal after throw-in situations at our own penalty area.
Back to what you said earlier. You think big teams aren’t willing to employ long throws because the fans won’t like it? Do coaches also think it’ll take too much training time away from other things?
It doesn't take so much time because you can easily have a guy like me coach the two best throwers. At FC Midtjylland, we had four or five guys be world-class throwers. But for me the challenge with many with many top clubs is that they're playing a possession-based style -- high pressure, playing high speed, very intense. The fans, the culture of the club -- that's the feeling you want to have when you go to the stadium.
I know we could score a lot of goals in Liverpool with long throw-ins, but we'll have to take eight or 10 long throw-ins every game to get there. At Anfield, you're often using like 30 seconds to prepare a long throw-in. You have to get the thrower, you have to put people up. It takes a lot of time. I can only speak from my point of view, but I think it would take the charm out of most of the top teams' playing styles.
What about the flip-throw? I know you’ve personally used it. Could we ever see someone try that? Or is it more of a novelty?
The reason why I used the flip throw-in was because I wanted to beat the world record. I was starting from scratch, so it really appealed to me.
Of course, it's totally entertaining with flip throw-ins, but I also often see people do flip throw-ins and then it doesn't come far. There are some flip-throwers who can throw really far. But I'd rather have a normal throw-in because a lot of people can learn that. Often the flip throw in is too high up in the air; it’s really hard to do it flat and long. But don’t underestimate the entertainment. It’s either catastrophe, or it’s just amazing, so you’re guaranteed to be entertained one way or the other.
I don’t know if you remember this, but that reminds me of that Iranian player who tried a flip throw, I think, against Portugal at the World Cup. [It was against Spain.] He flipped over and didn’t throw the ball. It was the opposite of spectacular.
There are really some times when you think there’s more to this world than just us here. And so I’ve recently been coaching with KAA Gent in Belgium. I was with the head coach and he told me, “We bought this little fullback. He’s called ‘Milad [Mohammed].’” And then I saw it, and it was him, the Iranian guy! I'm not normally coaching the flip throw, but I just thought that, OK, I saw what he did at the World Cup. I was a little bit sorry for him because I think it was really brave to do that. So, I gave him some tips for the flip throw-in
He really deserves to be acknowledged because he can actually do the flip throw-in. In the World Cup, he was brave, but he lost his heart. It’s a little bit sad because I think he was super-brave.