“It’s a bit of an unfair advantage, Stoke City use a force that isn’t usually obvious in football,” Arsene Wenger said after Arsenal’s away loss to Stoke. Rival defender Rory Delap scored two goals in two shots against the Gunners, giving his team a 2-1 win.
David Moyes called Delap “the slingshot man,” Sam Allardyce called the rocket, and Luis Felipe Scolari claimed he had never seen anything like it in his life. In the 2008/09 Premier League season, no one had figured out how to disable Stoke City’s newly promoted Second Division winger Rory Delap’s incredible weapon and his hulk-like kicks.
Why no one can do anything against Delap’s debuts: Wenger has even proposed to change the rules of football
In the summer of 2006, Rory Delap moved from Sunderland to Stoke City. The 29-year-old midfielder was no different from other players in his position in the Championship – he was strong, hardworking, but not exceptionally talented. One of Rory’s truly great talents was pushing out of bounds. As a teenager, Delap competed in the javelin throw, which helped him develop his unique throw-in power and technique. And even then this talent Rory did not appear for long – Stoke coach Tony Pulis was the first to discover him.
“We once had a competition at the base to see who could throw the ball over the far post,” Pulis recalls. “Delap threw it so hard that my assistant came up to me and said, “Did you see what you just did?” How did you hide it the whole time?” I asked. Then we realized that this weapon can be used effectively to create luck in the opponent’s rook.
Stoke started using this tactic in the 2007/08 season. Delap managed to score a few goals right after the debuts, but the wow effect was not achieved due to the large number of tall and strong players who love power football in the Championship. After re-entering the Premier League, however, Tony Pulis realized that Rory’s goal kicks, combined with the presence of many tall players on the roster, could crush Premier League defenders. The truth is that in the Premier League they have begun to move away from their bunch of masculine central defenders in favor of newer, faster and more technical ones. The same “Arsenal” swapped a bunch of colossal Tony Adams and Saul Campbell for the cell phone, but not the all-powerful Kolo Toure and Mikael Silvestre.
In Stoke, by order of Pulis, the Britannia home stadium was also prepared. The sidelines have been narrowed to the extent permitted by Premier League rules. Along the edge they have made special billboards that can be zoomed out so Delap has more space for jogging. The towel boys were placed on the field, wiped the ball and served it to Delap. They even removed the barriers at the corners of the stadium, making Britannia the windiest stadium in the league – all to make the flight path more unpredictable when the ball is kicked out of bounds. In addition, the grass on the turf was left as high as possible to slow the movement of the ball – this fell into the hands of Stoke, who was accustomed to playing with long-distance gaps (the ball was “sticked”). Grass is better), which, on the contrary, interfered with technical teams playing at the bottom – it became much easier to quickly move the ball from the bottom.
This paid off: Stoke, who was expected to relegate to the Championship before the start of the season, finished 12th. And in the 7th place according to the points scored at home. Let’s not forget that the team did not have top-notch players – the team just used its main trump card correctly – exits performed by Delap. It got ridiculous – in one of the matches Rory made 25 passes and threw the ball out of touch 26 times.
“People said our style of football wouldn’t work in the Premier League, we would always lose,” says former Stoke player Liam Lawrence. “But we had a close-knit team of strong-willed characters who were not used to giving up. We played to our strengths, especially Rory’s throw-in. They were even more effective than corners. The orbit was incredible – flat and powerful at the same time.
In the first few months of the 2008/09 season, Stoke scored from Delap’s shots against Aston Villa, Everton, Portsmouth, Sunderland and Arsenal. A quarter of the 38 goals they scored in the Premier League that season came from goals. According to Stats Perform, Delap has provided 5 direct assists in 5 seasons in the Premier League and Stoke have scored 24 goals straight from their debut. Since the 2008/09 season, no player has provided more than two assists on a direct throw-in and no other club has scored more than 12 goals after a throw-in.
This style really infuriated opponents – Arsene Wenger could not help but even suggested changing the rules for throwing the ball out, replacing the shot with a kick with his hands. Not surprising – Delap managed to throw the ball 40 meters at 60 km / h.
“I understand what goes through the minds of attackers at moments like this,” recalls Peter Crouch. – You think, “No, you still have to go into the penalty area to defend yourself”. He regularly tries to turn every corner so as not to say anything about exits. Made you hate teams like Stoke. If Rory Delap hits the ball harder from the corner, this trick isn’t shy at all.
Delap fought the best they could. West Ham deliberately repositioned their billboards close to the pitch, warming up in front of Hull player Delap and preventing him from running. And “Hull” goalkeeper Boyaz Mayhil once chose to send the ball into the corner instead of throwing it out. Rafael Benítez later admitted that he gave Liverpool players a mentality to do anything but take the ball out of the field in their own half.
Delap’s secret of long-range shooting: how to develop such strength and technique
What makes Rory Delap unique and why hasn’t there been a player in the world of football who can throw the ball with such power and accuracy? There are several reasons for this superior efficiency.
The first is Delap’s data. He practiced javelin throwing for a long time, which developed his back, arms and chest muscles. In 2011, FourFourTwo even released a special set of exercises like Delap that will allow you to pump the right muscle group for throws: this is a bench press (3 sets, 6 reps), an incline press with dumbbells (3 sets, 12 reps) and a kneeling health throwing the ball (3 sets, 6 reps).
The second is technology. The analysis was done by scientists from Brun University. Delap took 4 steps back for optimal acceleration and strongly arched his back on the last step before the shot to increase the amplitude of the shot. An important detail is that the ball and hands are dry, and the fingers form the letter W when holding the ball: this way it will be possible to place the shot, not hinged.
“After most hits, the balls fly in a high arc, which means at a low velocity,” explains football expert and former Arsenal defender Lee Dixon. – Delap throws the ball like he takes a corner. Throws the ball with his hands with great force along a smooth trajectory to maintain flight speed.
The third is movement in the penalty area. Delap’s exits wouldn’t have been as effective if it wasn’t for competent blocks and opening partners.
“We practiced our move on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays,” Liam Lawrence recalls. – We spent hours working on the standards – not just throw-ins, corners, free kicks as well. Each player knew their role: someone blocked the close post, someone opened it from behind. It may have looked messy, but in fact, everything was staged down to the last detail.”
Stoke City have never been a standout force in the Premier League, and after two years they were used to Delap’s throw-ins – the effectiveness of their throw-in gradually declined. But Rory, an inconspicuous football player from the basements of English football, gained a legend status thanks to one move. Thanks to him, top clubs are gradually changing their attitude towards shooting – Liverpool even recently hired a private coach to work on this component.
Rory Delap has a son, Liam, who is 19 years old and currently plays for Manchester City’s youth team. True, unlike his father, he is indifferent to exits. “When my son was about ten years old, one of the parents shouted that he had finished the game with a throw-in,” Rory recalls. “Since then, it has never come close to that standard. I don’t think it will be a part of his game.”
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