For a while, the Long Throw felt like a museum piece from the Rory Delap era; equal parts effective and unfashionable. Then the numbers moved, the coaching caught up, and now Premier League back lines are bracing every time the ball skids out near the corner flag. Brentford are leading the revival under Keith Andrews; the rest of the division is deciding whether to copy, counter, or complain.
What is a Long Throw 2.0?
This isn’t “lob it and hope”. The modern Long Throw is flat, fast and pre-scripted: near-post screens, far-post runs, keepers blocked off legally, plus a heavy emphasis on second balls around the D. Think corner-kick detail, from the touchline. Liverpool’s Thomas Grønnemark mainstreamed this thinking years ago; less distance worship, more precision and repeatable patterns, and the league has taken notes.
Why it’s back: The data
- Volume has surged. This season is seeing around double the long throws into the box versus any prior year in the past decade; early rounds logged ~3.0 per match.
- On opening weekend, 11 of 20 teams launched at least one long throw into the area. That’s a culture shift.
- Set-pieces are an ever-bigger slice of goals; the trendline has ticked up over the last two seasons. Marginal gains add up.
Brentford’s blueprint
Andrews’ Brentford have turned touchlines into set-piece runways. They talk openly about “causing carnage,” and you can see it in their choreography: flat trajectories, pre-planned blocks, and the box loaded with height. Michael Kayode’s throw is a weapon, but the real trick is the structure around it. It’s a club-wide buy-in, born from Andrews’ stint as set-piece coach before taking the top job.
Coaching, not chaos
Specialists matter. Grønnemark’s arrival at Liverpool in 2018 (yes, they hired a throw-in coach) highlighted how much edge there is in the restart game: flat, accurate, rehearsed beats “big heave.” That philosophy has spread, Brentford included.
Managers are paying attention (and cracking jokes)
Even those who haven’t gone all-in are watching. Enzo Maresca quipped that if Chelsea embraces the Long Throw, they might “take out Liam [Delap] and bring on his dad,” a nod to Rory Delap’s noughties superpower at Stoke. The smile says joke; the trend says serious.
The Rory Delap effect
Delap didn’t just fling it far, Stoke drilled timings, blocks and runs until the “chaos” looked inevitable. That heritage is back in a sleeker package. The lesson: when the ball arrives flat and fast, defenders panic and structure breaks.
How teams are defending it now
- First contact or bust: centre-backs attack the flight like a corner and trust midfielders to hoover second balls.
- Keeper lanes: teams coach “screens against screens” to keep a channel for the goalkeeper.
- Legal grappling: refs are watching holds more closely this season; messy penalties are a risk. (And the more it’s used, the more officials are tuned in.)
Laws, time-wasting and the rhythm of games
All the prep around throws is part of a wider restart arms race. Ball-in-play share has dipped to the mid-50s this season, and long, set-piece-heavy phases are under the microscope. Meanwhile, IFAB have changed Law 12: if a goalkeeper holds the ball over eight seconds, it’s now a corner, a big shift from the little-enforced six-second indirect free-kick. Expect similar scrutiny of the set-piece “theatre” around long throws if it starts to grind games to a halt.
Who’s next?
You don’t need a Delap-level arm; you need a player who can hit 20–25 metres flat and a team drilled for the second phase. That means lots of clubs can switch this on, fast. Brentford and Bournemouth have been among the keen adopters; others are testing the water.
What to watch, match to match
- Where do they take throws from, wide of the six-yard line or deeper for a run-up?
- Is the throw aimed at the near-post flick, or drilled to the penalty spot?
- Who’s screening the keeper, and how do refs react?
- Do they have a mirrored routine to the far post when the defence over-commits?
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