We have been abysmal at positioning for throw ins for many years, as we don`t provide options for the taker. Surely this is (alongside the player at the far post for corners) a severe coaching fault that any number of our highly rewarded Head Coaches don`t even seem to acknowledge. Would be interested in Reid`s observations in particular on this.
We are incredibly static from throw-ins - there were numerous instances on Saturday No movement, every player marked and everyone just standing around waiting for Ngakia to decide who to throw to (not his fault there's nobody moving!) - he had to turn and throw it Sierralta by the halfway line, which Millwall were quite happy to let happen. Kone is in a bit of space but I imagine the Millwall player would move to shut that down if Lewis turns towards his direction. Instead we have to gamble on a throw to Kayembe, who loses his header and we've lost the ball in seconds. Would be interested to see the stats of how often we lose the ball within 10 seconds of a throw-in being taken. I'd wager it's pretty often! There's a lot that can be done from throw-ins - especially with clever movements and positioning, i've made the below videos before breaking down some of the key principles that the throw-in coach at Liverpool + Ajaxs does with them - it's not rocket science, just clever movements to free up the receiver
@reids you would be an excellent technical coach for Watford. How many more or our phone calls to Gino to employ you is he going to ignore?
Nowhere near Reids' level of analysis, I did notice at the weekend that when we have a throw deep in our own half we don't do the standard long throw down the line, so most defensive challenges go out for another throw further up the pitch. Seems like a tactic most clubs use (especially in the Championship), but we don't. Also, on Saturday why was everyone pretending the Millwall player had a long throw? Everyone clustered beyond the near post, but none of the throws even made it to the 6 yard box - I couldn't understand why we didn't just stand somebody short and sweep up the ball at head height before there's any danger.
This is interesting, thanks for posting, amazing how a few set movements can open things up so easily. One quick question, do you think we'd need better technical players to do the crossfield switch of play when defending? Would worry that some of our players would get the ball back from a throw and then underhit it straight to a centre forward, none of them are exactly Alexander-Arnold levels on the ball!
Not only in our own half. It’s a bugbear of mine that, even with a throw 15 yards in the opposition half, the first thought is to go back towards the defence. This happened in the first half on Saturday: in two passes the ball was back with Bachmann. GT would be furious.
He does have a decent throw usually - the top image are all his throws into the area this season and the bottom are his throws from Saturday - so he didn't have the usual range on them! Whilst you're obviously correct in not having the same level of technique as Liverpool/Ajax etc, I'd imagine most of our players should be able to pull off a pass like that. I just did a quick search (god I love having so much football data - took 20 seconds to find this!) to see if any of our full-backs have played a pass like that this season and whilst there haven't been many attempts - Ngakia actually did something very similar at the end of the QPR game!
Is the 1st instance merely Millwall defending a set piece zonally and forcing the throw in backwards to an unmarked player as they have 8 defenders around the thrower ? Is the issue that we are too slow to take restarts and this allows our opponents to do this ?
I'm enjoying the throw in debate. Twenty years ago I was moaning that we didn't have a bl**dy clue how to take throws and they usually ended up with the ball going back to the opposition. I've never stopped and it's never changed. We haven't got a clue and never have. (apart from 1984 away at Birmingham in the fa cup quarter final when I saw the finest ever throw made in the history of Watford) 4 minutes 50 seconds in the video below
Little bit of both. We're slow to take them which allows them to get setup in this way, then when they are set-up we don't try to find space to receive the ball which gives us 0 options other than to go backwards. Bayo is behind Cooper (I think), Coopers keeping an eye on him but if Bayo can get into a blindspot (maybe a dummy drop of the shoulder to pretend to go down the line instead) before changing direction then he can can buy himself space to receive that ball and then we have options - Kone has the headstart over his guy and can possibly get behind the #24, Kayembe can get behind his guy or drop into the space left by Kone, Asprilla can tuck in to receive the layoff or make a run down the line if Kone or Kayembe. It might not work but it's preferable than throwing it back to Sierralta on the halfway line (which is what we did in this position!)
Love that game. Even when we had Lee Sinnot we didn't do much with throw ins and he could chuck it miles
Gosh. what a superb C.V. Reids, this is a great blueprint for any aspiring Coach. Not only identifying the problem but also providing a whole raft of potential solutions. It does make me wonder if any number of us can pinpoint such basic areas of improvement for a team that has been intensively coached by numerous `eminent Masters of the craft` there appears to be a problem, which won`t be solved until it is recognized that we are over complicating the situation. My match day chum sums it up so well `Watford are most at risk when in possession of the ball in their own half`.
I remember the Mike Keen days when Alan Garner took the long throws. We used to chant 'we'd rather have a throw-in, we never score from a corner', although that may have been more a comment on how utter-5hyte we were from corners at the time.
What is interesting is that they have an 8 v 6 advantage around the ball and I assume the RB out of shot providing balance plus the GK and a CF also out of shot around the centre circle. If , as you say, we can gain good attacking possession then we must have a massive overload on the other half of the pitch ? I'm just thinking out aloud here but instead of the conventional way of the FB taking the throw in, if we are looking to switch, would Kone be a better thrower option and to play a bounce ball to Kayembe then ping it to Lewis on the other flank as he is more likely to be able to do this than JN?. As I said just thinking out aloud so feel free to critique !!!!
We sometimes look for a way to give it to Bachman from our own corners. We never score from corners because we're **** at them too, so this is quite a clever plan.
Noticed last night our throw-ins (along with our corners) were much improved last night. Would imagine that falls under Gianni Vio's remit, lots of principles on display that were shown in the videos I linked above, lots of movements/rotations/switches. Best are in the video below - still not perfect but good to see progress.
