Rory Delap's super-powered long throw was pretty unique in the Championship as Stoke City won promotion but it seemed like something from another planet for some cosmopolitan coaches in the Premier League.
“I’ve never seen anything like it in my life,” said then-Chelsea manager Luiz Felipe Scolari as Delap's catapults set up nine goals to help ensure Tony Pulis's Potters stayed in the top flight.
So Chelsea hatched a plan when Scolari was replaced by Carlo Ancelotti for the 2009/10 season and faced a September trip to the Britannia Stadium. This was only Ancelotti's fifth league game in English football, having spent the previous decade in charge of Juventus and AC Milan.
As long throws return to fashion - although none with anywhere near the velocity or effectiveness of Delap's - Chelsea's assistant manager from that time, Paul Clement, has dusted off his coaching notes from that campaign to reveal how they managed to put a handle on the weapon and come away with a 2-1 win.
It was recognised as no gimme even for a side that would end up as champions. Stoke had beaten teams including Aston Villa, Tottenham, Arsenal and Manchester City at home as the built their reputation back in the big time.
Clement tells the Athletic that Chelsea stars were under orders not to concede unnecessary throws - to the point that it might be preferable to concede a corner, like Hull City keeper Boaz Myhill infamously did at the Brit - and they devised a new system combining zonal and man-to-mark marking.
“Usually a defender might clear up by putting the ball in the stands, that was a very dangerous thing to do against Stoke," said Clement.
“Myself and Ray Wilkins were Carlo’s assistants. Carlo hadn’t seen this before: he’d seen a long throw, but not one like Delap’s. We saw it as dangerous, if not more dangerous than a corner. Ray was trying to explain this to Carlo and said it was better to kick it out for a corner. That conversation actually happened.”
He added: “We put two players in what we called zone one and zone two. One would generally be around the near post, zone two would be bang in the middle of the goal. They were Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba. If the ball was level with the penalty area and forwards, we would put Ashley Cole on the back post. We felt anything that would be flicked on, the back post was an important area to defend. Then we had markers.
“We were a physical team. We had Frank, who was 6ft and a strong lad, then Didier. The markers were John Terry, Alex, Branislav Ivanovic, Michael Ballack, Michael Essien — we were a strong, physical side, and in a nutshell that’s why we dealt with it all quite well.”
Robert Huth, who had joined Stoke that season, recently pointed to Drogba's effectiveness in that regard in a 5Live documentary marking the 20th anniversary of Chelsea's first title under Jose Mourinho.
Huth had been in the Chelsea 2004/05 squad and understood when he later went up against them why Mourinho had put such great stock on the striker's ability to defend set-pieces as well as be a menace at the other end.
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