Coach's Library · Set Pieces

Throw-Ins Are a Set Piece — Start Treating Them Like One

Spielverlagerung on Liverpool and Gronnemark — the marginal gain hiding in plain sight.

Cam Jolley

Co-Founder & Academy Coach, Coach Central

Liverpool hired a specialist coach just for throw-ins and pushed their retention from around fifty percent to seventy, which tells you everything — the throw-in is a set piece almost nobody coaches, and that's exactly why it's an edge.

What they actually do

Gronnemark splits throws into long, fast, and clever, and Liverpool prioritize keeping the ball over launching it. The principles are simple and teachable: the closest player takes it quickly, teammates arrange to create several lines of depth, one player vacates a space so another can exploit it, and you throw the ball onto a teammate's foot so the first touch is clean. Then they adapt by zone — safer long throws deep, cleverer combinations higher up.

Why this is perfect for youth

Think about how many throw-ins a game has and how many of them your team just gives away. That's free possession you're handing back. And none of this requires elite athletes — it requires organization and a habit. Any team can learn to take it quickly, create angles, and throw to feet. It's the definition of a marginal gain, and it develops something bigger too: the idea that we take the small details seriously because that's what a real standard looks like.

How I'd use it this week

Spend ten minutes on throw-ins this week: closest player takes it fast, two players create angles, throw to feet. Then track your throw-in retention in the next game — the number will move.

Takeaways

The throw-in is an uncoached set piece — which is exactly why coaching it is an edge.
The principles are simple and universal: take it quickly, create lines of depth, throw to feet.
It needs organization and habit, not elite athleticism — a marginal gain any team can win.

Read the original

Spielverlagerung — Liverpool: Throw-In Analysis. How Liverpool and Thomas Gronnemark turned throw-ins into a weapon. spielverlagerung.com/2020/01/31/liverpool-throw-in-analysis/
Medium (Jake Fox) — Why does Ben White take so long on throw-ins?. How deliberate throw-in setups create advantages. medium.com/@jakewfox98/why-does-ben-white-take-so-long-on-throw-ins-f4ee91156f49

Coach Central is an independent educational resource. Linked works belong to their respective authors and publishers; we cite and recommend them, and the commentary here is our own.