Chelsea: Enzo Maresca responds to Premier League long throw-in hype with Liam Delap return inbound | OneFootball

Old fashioned set play has taken over the English top flight

Enzo Maresca has not ruled out utilising long throws at Chelsea in the future, but admits he currently has no plans to take advantage of the latest Premier League trend.

Maresca, though, is not remotely concerned, with his side having scored the joint-most goals from set-pieces (8) this season.

“If we don't do it, it's probably because I don't like it,” Maresca said at his pre-match press conference on Friday.

“But I said before, you never know, you need to evolve in football. So probably one day I will do that, in this moment we don't plan to play long throw-ins. But again, it's a matter of evolution, probably one day we're going to start also with the long throw-ins, but not in this moment.

“I think there are different ways to win matches.”

Sunderland are the visitors to Stamford Bridge on Saturday and they too have worked on making long throws part of their attacking arsenal, with only Brentford attempting more long throws in the Premier League this season

While Maresca is not sold on the idea of Chelsea using long throw-ins, he did admit that his side had been training to defend throws into their box, having conceded a stoppage-time equaliser from a long throw against Brentford last month.

“We try to [prepare for long throws]. Knowing that in this moment most of the teams in the Premier League, but also different leagues, they are using long throws,” Maresca continued.

He revealed that he had shown his team clips of the goal they conceded against Brentford.

“We are trying to find solutions on how we can deal with that. But it's difficult because just with the long throws, they are inside the box. Most of them are inside the six-yard box so it's very complicated.

“It's something that now [and] again almost every team is doing that so we need to learn how to deal with that.”

One player who should know better than most how to make long throws count in Chelsea’s favour is Liam Delap, whose dad, Rory, rose to prominence with his ability to hurl the ball into the opposition penalty area.

Asked if he fancied putting the striker, currently sidelined by a hamstring injury, on long throws, Maresca laughed.

“If the striker has a long throw-in, who is inside the box?” he countered.

“Liam's dad, he was the king of long throw-ins, and in case we decide to go for long throw-ins, probably we [should] swap dad with son. Liam can stay home and we bring in his dad.”