The long throw came back because nobody bothers defending it

Teams drill corners for hours and treat the attacking throw-in as a restart, which is exactly why it works.

Fifteen minutes on defending corners, twenty on free kicks around the box, and then the throw-in gets a sentence. That distribution of training time is the whole explanation for why a supposedly primitive weapon keeps scoring.

A long throw into the box is not the same problem as a corner and defences keep treating it as one. There is no swerve on it, which sounds like an advantage for the defender until you notice what it really means. The flight is flat and fast, it arrives below the height a goalkeeper is comfortable attacking, and, more to the point, the goalkeeper cannot claim it in the way he would claim a floated cross, because coming through bodies for a low flat ball is how goalkeepers get hurt. So the keeper stays. A zone set up to defend a curling delivery has its front man positioned for a ball that will arrive two metres lower and half a second earlier.

There is also no offside consideration on a throw, which changes where the attacking side can put bodies, and a flick on at the near post beats the entire defensive structure because everyone behind is facing the wrong way. That flick is the actual mechanism. The throw is just delivery.

What teams should do about it is unglamorous. Put a body on the flick-on man rather than zoning the space, because the flick is a duel and duels are won by contact, not position. Push the line up, since the throw cannot be taken quickly if the target has to travel. And accept that the goalkeeper is not part of this defence, then stop building shapes that assume he is.

The reason none of this happens is status. Coaches are judged on the football their team plays, and spending a Thursday afternoon on defending throw-ins looks like an admission about the sort of team you are. Set piece coaching escaped that stigma about a decade ago and became respectable. The throw-in has not, and there is a real edge sitting in that gap for anyone willing to look slightly unfashionable.

One more thing. If your side concedes from a long throw, the analysis afterwards will blame the marking. It was the preparation, and that decision was made in August.