Carragher has major Premier League concern as he slams clubs for copying trend

The Premier League has seen a huge rise in the number of long throw-ins being taken this season and Jamie Carragher believes the trend is a massive backwards step for the league

Jamie Carragher has argued that the Premier League’s wholesale adoption of long throw-ins this season is a sign of regression. The former Liverpool defender is concerned that the product is being diluted and fans are being fed less entertaining football.

Long throw-ins have been a notable part of the Premier League this season, with matches averaging four per game – up from just 1.5 in 2024/25. While Brentford remain the kings of the tactic, Arsenal’s willingness to use them, in particular, has turned heads.

The rise of set piece coaches and a better understanding of data has evolved the game – and not in a good way, according to Carragher. The pundit played for Liverpool between 1996 and 2013 and believes the current version of elite football is unrecognisable to the previous era.

In a column for the Telegraph he has laid out his beliefs, saying that long throw-ins should be “cause for concern, not celebration”. While he defended a manager’s right to employ whatever gets results, he pointed to the fact that the ball is now in play, on average, for 10 minutes less per match than six years ago as evidence things are going in the wrong direction.

“Castigating any manager for preferring one style over another is wrong, but let’s not pretend it is more attractive or tactically clever, seeing defenders launch long throws to cause mayhem in a penalty area,” he wrote.

“Percentage football is not multidimensional or sophisticated, which is why those who staunchly believe in those methods are rarely employed by the elite, Champions League clubs, or do not last long when they are.”

He added: “Judging that standard against the intricate, beautiful passing moves and dribbles of [Pep] Guardiola’s Barcelona, or [Luis] Enrique’s PSG a year ago, is like comparing a chip-shop tea with a Michelin-starred quality meal. One is easier to cook and is less expensive to assemble than the other, but it’s never going to wow you.”

Mirror Football spoke to the world’s only professional throw-in coach, Thomas Gronnemark, in September about the long throw-in trend. Despite his line of work, Gronnemark has actually been irritated by much of what he’s seen, accusing some clubs of jumping on the bandwagon but doing so poorly.

“You can say there are many more long throw-ins in the Premier League. You can say ‘isn’t that good?’ No, not necessarily! There are far too many teams taking low-quality long throw-ins. Some of the throw-ins are just not long enough, so they’re not dangerous, and sometimes it’s about the strategy,” Gronnemark said.

“It’s also about entertainment for the fans. People might think that a guy who coaches long throw-ins wants a lot of them. Actually, I don’t. I don’t want to see every team take 10 long throw-ins in every game because then we have too much start and stop.

“People just look at the best teams and say ‘they’re having real success data-wise, so we’ll do the same’. But they are forgetting that there’s a lot of work, many years’ worth, behind it.”