Well done, Opta, we took the bait.
After seeing your tweet about Manchester City being the only Premier League team to complete 100 per cent of their throw-ins this season, we felt obliged to examine all 49 of them to try to spot some patterns.
And while throw-ins are ultimately a small part of the game, something which we do not always pay much attention to and which the television cameras regularly neglect to show, you might find that by the end of this article you will be able to predict what City will do next time they have the ball in their hands.
The overall aim for City, no matter where they are on the pitch, is to carry on playing as if there was never a throw-in in the first place.
The obvious conclusion upon seeing Opta’s graphic, which highlights how many of City’s throw-ins are short, is that Pep Guardiola does not want to lose the ball.
100% – Manchester City have taken 49 throw-ins in the Premier League this season and all 49 have successfully found a Man City player, the only team with a 100% success rate in the division in 2024-25. Retention. pic.twitter.com/W1JuNLhpv5
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) September 2, 2024
And, yes, that is the case, but what’s interesting is not so much the throw-in itself but what City want to do with the ball once it is back in play.
Generally speaking, in City’s own half and in the middle third, they often take a short throw to the nearest player. If they are near their own box under no pressure, the full-back will almost always give it to the centre-back.
Against Manchester United in the Community Shield, Rico Lewis did this exact thing at least six times, throwing it to Manuel Akanji every time (there were possibly more examples missed by the cameras). Akanji then moved the ball on quickly, usually to his left, to get the ball away from where the throw-in was actually taken and away from where opposition players were likely to have congregated.
Tactics can change from game to game, but this is a constant.
In midfield, City often want to get the ball to a centre-back as well, but they will normally use a midfielder to get it there. Again, it is usually the full-back to take the throw and they will look for the nearest central midfielder to come short.
From there, the midfielder will either turn and pass the ball back to a centre-back, or they will give it back to the throw-in taker first time, who will pass the ball back to the centre-back with the whole game in front of him.
In the final third, though, City are much keener to stay on the front foot. However, this does not appear to be as set in stone as their approach in the first two thirds. For example, here is Ilkay Gundogan booming the ball back to the centre-backs in the closing stages last weekend.
And in this scenario against Chelsea, they just got play going again like they would deeper on the pitch. Bernardo Silva throws to Akanji, who gives it straight back. Bernardo then passes first time back to Ruben Dias, who in turn finds Josko Gvardiol and City start again.
But quite often, when City have the ball in attacking areas, the throw-in and/or movements afterwards are designed to keep the opposition penned in near their goal. They are not always determined to get the ball in the box straight away, but they want to keep their territorial advantage.
Here is an example of Gvardiol looking for Erling Haaland in the box.
While here he throws outside the box to Kevin De Bruyne, who spins and finds Bernardo.
Bernardo then passes back to Akanji but City still have West Ham pegged back in their defensive third 10 seconds later, by which point Akanji switches the play to De Bruyne on the left wing.
Here are a couple of examples from the end of last season, where City also use somebody to stretch the pitch a little bit more — you cannot be offside from a throw-in. Both times, the receiver gives it straight back to the taker.
In the one below, they find Rodri on the edge of the box in space to put in a cross.
Opposition pressure, of course, changes how hard City have to work when they get a throw-in, but the goal is usually the same: in the first two thirds, get the ball back to a centre-back or goalkeeper. They just might need more creativity to get it there.
Here is a good example of more intense pressure higher up the pitch, from the final day of last season against West Ham. Gvardiol threw it back to Akanji, who played the ball back to Gvardiol. The Croatian spotted that Michail Antonio was ready to intercept the pass inside to Rodri (slide 3) so he feinted, moved up a yard or two and found Phil Foden, who spread the ball towards where West Ham had fewer numbers.
A few days before that game, City travelled to Tottenham for what many considered to be the biggest game of the season. Spurs applied a lot of pressure that night, including on throw-ins in the City half, and Guardiola’s plan was pretty clear: find somebody free and then move it to the other side of the pitch, away from the pressure, as quickly as possible.
Back to this season and the synchronisation between Bernardo and Kovacic. In this example against Ipswich, Bernardo drops from a high attacking midfield position to become free in the space where Kovacic previously was. Bernardo gives the ball back to Gvardiol first time, Gvardiol gives it to Kovacic first time.
Kovacic, under pressure, dribbles forward and is fouled. City try to play advantage and Gvardiol checks back to give the ball to Bernardo, who has dropped into acres of space, but the prone Kovacic is in the way and City get a free kick. Their intention was obvious: to use their two midfielders to manoeuvre out of a tight spot and into space.
Here is another example from the Chelsea game this season, one which also ties in their approach when in the final third. Kovacic and Bernardo create space for each other, but Gvardiol keeps the pressure up with a throw-in up the line to Jeremy Doku.
As an extra observation, Gvardiol is more likely to throw the ball up the line even when in a deeper position, as is Kyle Walker. With Walker, it is probably a case of Guardiola adapting to the skills of his players, as a long throw is something Walker has that Lewis does not, and the more senior right-back often uses it to fire the ball back to Ederson or another centre-back.
That might make things slightly harder to predict when he returns to action after the international break, but if you made it to the end of this article you will have a pretty good idea of how City like to get the game going again.
(Top photo: Pep Guardiola and Josko Gvardiol; by Ben Stansall/AFP via Getty Images)
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