The long throw has re-emerged as a favoured - and effective - attacking option in 2025/26. Not since Rory Delap's heyday at Stoke City have so many teams used this set-piece method. Here, football writer David Coverdale takes a closer look at its rebirth.
Rory Delap believes long throws have proved so successful this season because the current generation of players do not know how to defend them.
Delap is the most famous exponent of the long throw in Premier League history, with his catapults gaining particular attention during his time at Stoke City from 2007 to 2013.
This season, the oft-derided set-piece ploy has made a spectacular comeback, with the average number of long throws per match more than double what it was in the 2023/24 campaign.
Watch: Long throws causing chaos in the Premier League
And Delap – who is the father of Chelsea striker Liam Delap – thinks clubs are turning to the tactic to exploit the supposed aerial weakness of modern-day defenders.
Guardiola's influence on playing style has affected defenders
"If you look over the last 10 years, Pep [Guardiola] has had a big influence on how teams play across the board," the 49-year-old told the University of Derby's Football Journalism podcast, On The Grass.
"If you look through the academies, the majority of the teams will look to play out from the back and they want technical players.
"The consequence of that is you end up with defenders that can’t defend and head a football.
"People are putting more long balls in because the lads that have come through the academies don’t understand how to defend that type of situation – the longer balls, throw-ins and set plays.
"Teams are doing it because they are getting success with going longer and direct."
Delap also admits he is frustrated by the long throw being talked about as if it is a new tactic that has been thought up by specialist set-piece coaches.
"There is a little correlation with a lot of teams having set-play coaches," he said. "But personally, I think it’s a bit disrespectful to say it’s a new thing. It’s not."
Watch Rory Delap's long throws for Stoke
Delap added: "It has been done since I was in Carlisle’s youth team, but it was just the manager's job to do it as part of the programme.
"It is no more important today than it was then, it’s just you now have an isolated coach to look after that side of the game.
"Things just come around in football – and it’s coming around again."