Exclusive: How world’s leading ex-Liverpool throw-in guru is helping Arsenal win games

When Thomas Gronnemark picks up the phone, it’s usually because a club has finally realised something he has been saying for decades: football is ignoring one of its most frequent – and most misunderstood – situations.

Gronnemark has spent his career proving the assumption that ‘throw-ins’ are nothing more than a pause in a match.

The former sprinter and Olympic bobsleigh brakeman is widely regarded as the world’s leading throw-in coach, a specialist whose influence has helped Liverpool surge from one of the Premier League’s worst teams in throw-in retention to its best, winning seven major trophies in the process.

In an exclusive interview with The Sporting News, Arsenal’s new throw-in coach explains how an obsession that began in the 1980s led him to invent an entirely new coaching discipline, and why he believes throw-ins remain football’s lowest-hanging fruit.

“I was already obsessed with throw-ins as a small boy in the mid-80s,” he explains.

“My older cousin was very good at them, and when you look up to someone older, you copy them.”

He played football himself at U19 level in Denmark and was known for his throwing ability, but it was his background in athletics – and later bobsleigh – that shaped his thinking.

“Sprinting taught me a lot about the body, but I also learned by watching throwers,” he says.

“Then bobsleigh taught me structure, analysis, and organisation. We worked closely with the German Bobsleigh Federation, so everything was systematic, very detailed, with lots of video.”

In 2004, he had a realisation. “There were no books. No framework. Nothing at all,” he says.

“So I had to invent my own course. I analysed video of myself, experimented, and built everything from scratch.”

Instead of starting at grassroots level, Gronnemark took a risk.

“I contacted Viborg in the Danish Superliga. They said yes – and they scored a lot of goals from throw-ins.”

By 2007, Gronnemark had refined his philosophy into three pillars: long, fast and clever.

“Most players improve five to ten metres just by using better technique, some up to fifteen,” he explains.

“That’s not from the gym. It’s from throwing better.”

Long throws are not just about launching the ball into the box. They stretch the pitch, expand the throw-in area, and make aggressive pressing harder for opponents.

“The further you can throw behind the opponent’s lines, the more dangerous you become,” Gronnemark says. But distance alone is not enough.

“Fast throw-ins are about reacting quickly,” he explains.

“If you restart fast, the opponent has no time to organise. It’s a huge weapon for counter-attacks, and defensively as well.”

“Clever throw-ins are about space creation.

“Not just one player, but two, three, four players working together.”

Rather than rehearsing rigid patterns, Gronnemark teaches players to read the opponent.

“They can defend in thousands of ways. So I give my players almost unlimited options. In every throw-in, there are usually one or two areas that are stupid to throw into, and two or three where the numbers are right.”

Despite the impact throw-ins can have, Gronnemark believes they remain massively undervalued.

“The most overlooked element is space creation. Throw-ins have been neglected for years.”

“You see teams lose the ball from a throw-in, and nobody says anything. Then one of my teams scores after a throw-in sequence that starts in their own half – switch, pass, goal – and the throw-in isn’t mentioned at all.”

That is why he bristles at the idea that his work is about “marginal gains”.

“We’re not talking about 0.3 per cent,” he says.

“We’re talking about gigantic gains. The only reason it’s called marginal is because it’s been ignored for so long.

Global recognition came in 2018 when Jurgen Klopp called him directly.

“He said: ‘We had a great season, fourth in the league, Champions League final. But we were really bad at throw-ins.'”

Liverpool’s data backed it up. They ranked 18th in the Premier League.

“In my first season, we went to number one. He [Klopp] knew he couldn’t do it alone. He wasn’t too big to say that.”

Over five seasons, Liverpool won seven trophies – and became one of the best attacking and defending throw-in teams in the world.

At Liverpool, Gronnemark helped design defensive systems that allowed intense pressing without reckless fouls, often with Jordan Henderson operating as a free presser, reading space rather than marking a man.

“Liverpool were considered the best defending throw-in team in the world. And in several seasons, they were also the most fair-play team in the league.”

Individually, the gains were dramatic. Andy Robertson improved his throw from 19.8 metres to 27 metres – a seven-metre jump that expanded Liverpool’s throw-in area by more than 500 square metres on the left flank.

Perhaps most surprisingly, Gronnemark insists elite teams are no harder to improve than amateur ones.

“The throw-in level in the Champions League is not better than in the third division in Croatia. That sounds strange, but it’s true.”

Now, he is applying those ideas at Arsenal, working alongside set-piece coach Nicolas Joveer, a familiar face from their time together at Brentford.

“My job is to maximise the number of great throw-ins,” Gronnemark says.

“But fans shouldn’t judge on one moment. Look at the percentages.”

And as more clubs embrace specialist coaching, his message is simple.

“Throw-ins deserve nuance. Sometimes slow is not time-wasting. Sometimes waiting creates space.

“If people start watching the touchline more closely, they’ll see just how much is happening.”