'Jurgen Klopp only wanted to meet me - but I ended up signing for Liverpool on the spot'

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"It should be mainstream because you have 40-60 throw-ins a match and you're spending around 20 minutes a match on throw-ins and throw-in-related situations, so actually you should have thousands of coaches who are educated in throw-ins."While others laughed, and others said it was a small thing, I just kept improving myself and getting more and more knowledge, improving my coaching, making new drills, looking at different opponents. Gronnemark did once hold the Guinness World Record for the longest throw-in, but his methods are more focused on speed, precision, and intelligent short throws that maintain possession and unsettle opponents."In some clubs I coached the long throw-ins and I'm very successful with those clubs like FC Midtjylland and Brentford," he said.

"But in most of my clubs like Liverpool, Ajax, Dortmund and many others, it's what I like to call the fast and clever throw-ins."So a lot of people think throw-in coaching [is] long throw-ins [and they think], 'We don't want to do that, so forget about it.' No. During a friendly match between the Danish and German bobsleigh squads, he uncovered a unique skill: a throw-in of astonishing length that amazed everyone watching."I thought then: 'If I can make a good throw-in myself, can I teach other players to do it?' he told Liverpool's club website in 2021.At first, his work focused exclusively on long throws.

But after analysing how frequently teams lost the ball from short throw-ins, even at elite level, he built a new approach - one that would later define his success."I started watching and analysing games and was horrified because I found out that most teams kept possession on only 50 per cent of the occasions when they had a throw-in under pressure. I also said to the team, 'I am not going to make you into a long-throw team, we are not going to take a lot of long throw-ins towards the opposition goal', because that could have been a fear for some of the players."Afterwards, Jurgen said to the team: 'One of our biggest weaknesses was throw-ins and I am 100 per cent sure that Thomas can help us.' These really fantastic players, all really motivated and ambitious - they heard what Jurgen was saying and thought: 'We have a weakness and here is someone who can help us.'"I can only be happy with the level of open-mindedness and motivation I have found with the players and staff here at Liverpool."Join our new WhatsApp community and receive your daily dose of Mirror Football content.