‘I remember Arsene Wenger…’ – Pep Guardiola on the resurgence of long throws and the high number of goals from set pieces this season | OneFootball

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola reminisced about Tony Pulis’ Stoke City team as he discussed the resurgence of long throw-ins in the Premier League.

After a lengthy absence, long throw-ins have come back into the style of late.

“Football is the same, 11 against 11, the same width,” said Guardiola. 

“It just evolves, it’s always the process since football appeared. I don’t know when it started, centuries ago, in the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, it evolves in details, that is normal.

“And the people, yeah sure, use every throw-in like a corner and put ten players in the box.”

City lost to Aston Villa at the weekend, with the only goal of the match coming from a corner. The Catalan continued: “Today in football, set-pieces are a threat. It’s another part, like you can see it, tactical, defensive, offensive and many, many aspects. 

“Of course we are working on it, paying attention to it. But in the end I have the feeling that as good as you play, you concede less corners and less throw-ins.

“We conceded a lot, a lot, a lot of corners, for example against Arsenal, we didn’t concede a goal, it’s just because we didn’t control the game.”

Guardiola reflected: “I remember a long time ago with Sean Dyche in Burnley. Burnley were an incredible threat in the long balls, second balls. Sean Dyche is one of the best by far in these kind of aspects.

“So it’s not new, he did it before or Sam Allardyce or I remember, I was not here, Stoke City.

“Remember Stoke City when they made their throw-ins? It happened in that time, so it’s not new. 

“Now it’s just more and more teams doing that but before maybe Stoke City was the exception.”

Former Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger famously struggled against Tony Pulis’ Stoke side.

Guardiola continued: “I remember I was in Barcelona or Bayern Munich, I listened to Arsene Wenger talk about playing Stoke City. But now it happens a lot of times.

“I remember with Burnley, it was tough, we conceded from one corner maybe or not even one corner, why? Because we were controlling the second balls, our pace and our control was a lot.

“And these kind of games the best way to defend is in that way.

“For that you have to be good in a lot of aspects and we are working on it. Until the end, I will continue to work mainly on our game and sometimes, of course, adapt when we have to do it. 

“We adapted in Brentford incredibly well. James (French) did an incredible job with our players, how we should defend this kind of action. We did unbelievable, the same in Arsenal. 

“And in the same time when we have our threats and our chances to take free-kicks and corners, try to be more productive than we are being.

“I want to score free-kicks and corners of course, I’m not naive.”