Whoever used to watch Premier League football between 2008 and 2012 will remember the long throw of Rory Delap for Stoke City.
Power of ‘Delp Special’ – when he thrown the ball from the sideline to the penalty area – opposed the rescue with Drade.
However, the bar has been one of the unused resources of throw-in football when that brief mantra Delap defined an era for Stoke.
Delp showed what was possible. But there should be more strategic possibilities for a set-piece that operates outside both offsides and handballs.
About 35 times every match is allowed to throw an outfield player on the pitch, often from a situation almost nearly where it went out of the game. Oh, and – unnecessary – there are no offsides.
Perhaps his original non-equality suggests that in the last century throw-in has not been noticed anyone. It is as if they are such a bizarrely, we do not register them significantly as part of football, but are adjacent to it, a strange contradiction before coming back under the real thing.
Whatever the reason, it is notable that the law around throw -in has not changed since the 19th century, nor – unlike everything else in football, it is strategic or technical – a throw -in landscape form and experience.
Here are five ideas how throw-in can be reinforced.
