LONDON (AP) — Long throw-ins. Long balls from the goalkeeper. Crosses into the box.
All of these old-school options are on the table for Thomas Tuchel, with the England coach ready to go back to basics to improve his team’s attacking threat ahead of next year’s World Cup.
England has won its first four matches in World Cup qualifying and Tuchel is already planning ahead to the tournament in the United States, Mexico and Canada.
If England does qualify, Tuchel seems to want his players to use tactics that were once mainstays of the English game but appeared to have gone out of fashion.
“I told you — the long throw-in is back,” Tuchel said, speaking ahead of England’s World Cup qualifier against Serbia on Tuesday.
“But we do not have a lot of time. But once we arrive at the World Cup, all these things matter, so we will also talk about long throw-ins, we will talk about long kicks from the goalkeeper and not only playing short. ... I need to reflect now with my assistant coaches. All these patterns are back and crosses are back as well.”
One of England’s goals in the underwhelming 2-0 win over Andorra on Saturday was from a cross, with Declan Rice heading in from Reece James’ delivery.
There has been a trend in recent years of goalkeepers starting attacks by playing shorts passes to defenders — an approach favored by pioneers like Pep Guardiola and then copied by many of his peers — rather than booting the ball long to a big striker, as was tradition in English soccer in the 1970s and ‘80s as well as in places like Sweden.
However, the rise in teams pressing high up the field has given goalkeepers the option of beating the press by sending the ball long.
As for long throw-ins, a study by The Athletic at the end of last season showed they were back in fashion among some teams in the Premier League, increasing year-on-year since the 2020-21 season.
According to the study, five teams — Brentford, Ipswich, Nottingham Forest, Crystal Palace and Aston Villa — all elected to throw more than 30% of throw-ins from attacking positions into the penalty area. Brentford, renowned for leaning heavily on analytics as part of its tactics, used long throw-ins 63% of the time from an attacking position.
Tuchel has only three more England camps — in October, November and March — before the World Cup.
“We cannot put everything into four days of training,” the German said, referring to the short time he has with the England players. “But these things will matter. And let’s see.”
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