The phrases that pundits and commentators can't live without now

[Olivergoldblack]

I listen to a lot of games on the radio and really annoys me when they start their sentence by going "Listen". I am listening you are on the bloody radio you imbecile.

Lol yep. The radio can be the worst, they just discuss things amongst themselves and forget to describe what's going on the pitch, forgetting the listeners can't see what's going on.

 

[Slothmonkey]

Lol yep. The radio can be the worst, they just discuss things amongst themselves and forget to describe what's going on the pitch, forgetting the listeners can't see what's going on.

Talksport is the worst for this. I was listening to Palace vs Everton. The co-commentator think it is was Leanne Sanderson just kept going off on a tangent land ten minutes had passed before the equal awful Sam Matterface would explain about a 5 second bit of play before he then went off on one.

 

[Olivergoldblack]

Talksport is the worst for this. I was listening to Palace vs Everton. The co-commentator think it is was Leanne Sanderson just kept going off on a tangent land ten minutes had passed before the equal awful Sam Matterface would explain about a 5 second bit of play before he then went off on one.

Yep dreadful. Whenever Murphy is co commentating I find he goes on a 5 minute antidote when he played for Liverpool about 10 times a game.
Finding Wolves radio is going the same, burrows, Thommo, naylor and King all at the same time, hardly any chance to explain what's going on.

 

[Kebab Warrior]

A lot of terminology is just different words for things already in English. This isn’t just down to poncey faux intellectualism either.
Using ‘rest’ defence as an example, it’s an expression used by foreign coaches in pigeon English that essentially means ‘the rest of the defence’ or effectively the people who stay back when you counter. This phrase gets used in English by foreign coaches, because that’s what they call it. We have a lot of foreign coaches in England….

Jurgen Klopp was apparently baffled when English journalists asked him about ‘high pressing’ / gegen-pressing like it was a new invention. He pretty much said ‘but I copied from English sides from the 80s.’

We’d have probably called it ‘closing down from the front’ or ‘closing down intensely’ or ‘defending from the front’

I still say there are no new ideas in football. Just forgotten ideas we re-use and call new names.

Pep comes from Cryuff comes from the Hungarians, comes from the Austrians comes from Jimmy Hogan comes from the Scottish…

I highly recommend the book ‘Inverting the Pyramid’

 

[Immigration wolf]

Passage of play .
People calling toss pot players by their first name like Jack Harry Mo etc
What winds me up most is divs on here calling players ballers ........absolute dick talk .

Carragher is one of the worst when Liverpool play, it’s “ Alexander Arnold” not *******g “Trent”.

 

[Hot Fuss]

XG - what a load of tripe that is. Rarely bears any resemblance to the score. Abject nonsense!

when we played Liverpool a few months ago at half time a bloke by me mentioned that our XG was 0.4. Bearing in mind Hwang had scored and Cunha had missed a chance from pretty much on the line.

Absolute nonsense.

 

[Oliwolf44]

'No disrespect to the dog and duck XI but if a bigger club came in for him like Manchester United he would be open to move'

Surely most fans know where there team is in the football ecosystem by now. We dont need to be told if the biggest teams in the world wanted to buy someone from a team below the big 6 the players would be interested. just reinforcing a narrative.
It always starts with a 'No disrespect, but......' before ******* on whatever team they are talking about

 

[Jack Russell]

Me too, (the Russian bit anyway).

What the **** is Futsal? I've never even seen it.

5 a side innit?

 

[Sussex Wolf]

Sky Sports on tv, Talksport and 5 Live on the radio, are all pretty much as bad as each other now. Spend the majority of the time talking about whichever “big team” happens to be playing, or failing that, whatever some other “big team” who aren’t playing has done or may do. It’s supposed to be a match commentary but f ‘s sake - talk about what’s going on in the game, and about both teams involved. Opinions about how one of the teams or players playing, I get, but opinions about this or that teams chances of winning the league, cup or upcoming “big derby” should be left to the studio pre/post match. A bit of background on the players playing, sure, not an excuse for the commentators to talk about their life history, or opinions on stuff unrelated to the game.

I mean it’s not hard. Listen to the comms on some foreign channel, or even Prime, and you get more of the game and less of the crap. Unfortunately the PL have stitched up the rights in such a way that the only legal commentary available for most games, is the crap we get from Sky, Talksport or 5 Live.

 

[stever]

Ryan Sessengnon is only 18

 

[Don Corleone]

Bouncebackability…

 

[stever]

Bouncebackability…

I'll match that with new manager bounce.

 

[Spitfire]

Jurgen Klopp was apparently baffled when English journalists asked him about ‘high pressing’ / gegen-pressing like it was a new invention. He pretty much said ‘but I copied from English sides from the 80s.’

We’d have probably called it ‘closing down from the front’ or ‘closing down intensely’ or ‘defending from the front’

Precisely.
This is exactly what Barnwell had us doing when we played Liverpool as they were one of the few teams who knocked it about a bit at the back then. Beat them at home twice in 1980, 1-0 and 4-1.

 

[goldeneyed]

Pet grammatical hates/mistakes/habits - missing out end Gs 'What was he thinkin' there',,,Alex Scott worst culprit who gets paid some 175k a year apparently or is it more?

'Here I am sat in the studio....'

'It was game of two halves...'

'We are looking to get a result..' as if anything else but a 'result' were possible.

'Its handbags at five yards'...

'We have no cutting edge'

Etc

 

[Contrarian]

when we played Liverpool a few months ago at half time a bloke by me mentioned that our XG was 0.4. Bearing in mind Hwang had scored and Cunha had missed a chance from pretty much on the line.

Absolute nonsense.

I think that's a misunderstanding of what XG is. It's really only an improved version of shots on target.

If a team has had 1 shot on target and is winning 1-0, while their opponent has had 3 shots on target, nobody is surprised because that kind of thing happens all the time. All XG does ultimately, is factor out that those 3 shots could have been 40 yard daisy cutters that trickled to the keeper so would never have been goals.

 

[Sussex Wolf]

I think that's a misunderstanding of what XG is. It's really only an improved version of shots on target.

If a team has had 1 shot on target and is winning 1-0, while their opponent has had 3 shots on target, nobody is surprised because that kind of thing happens all the time. All XG does ultimately, is factor out that those 3 shots could have been 40 yard daisy cutters that trickled to the keeper so would never have been goals.

Exactly. It’s a measure of the “expected goals” based on the quality of shots/chances. Three shots inside the box with an open goal being more likely to result in goals than three shots from distance into a packed box. Unfortunately many pundits and fans misunderstand it, as with many statistical measures.

https://www.coachesvoice.com/cv/expected-goals-xg-explained/#:~:text='Expected%20goals'%20is%20a%20statistical,expected%20goals%20is%20'xG'.

We’ve had periods of high xG but scored few goals, which simply means our players were poor or unlucky in converting chances. Equally we’ve had periods of low xG but scored more, which means we’ve been lucky or good at converting chances.

 

[Super NES]

Not exactly a football phrase but "At this moment in time" is one which bugs me for some irrational reason - seems to be every pundits favourite saying especially G.Nevilles whenever talking about Man Utd.

Just say "currently" - its does the same job!

 

[Golden Arrow]

Didn't Hugh Johns of Star Soccer on occasions say "he hit it with his left peg".
That used to nauseate me at the time but in the grand scheme of things I guess it was bugger all.

 

[Henry Palfrey]

Carragher is one of the worst when Liverpool play, it’s “ Alexander Arnold” not f*****g “Trent”.

Shearer too in the match this evening

 

[YouGottaRaulWithIt]

"Oh dear, VAR are looking at this, that's really harsh on Wolves, yet again".

 

[Jefe]

Just imagining Tyldesley saying, "and VAR are checking this..." with a raised tenor in his voice, will never not raise my blood pressure. Not just Wolves but any game. It's like an allergy.

 

[bigbluewolf]

Anything Dion Dublin says.

Corridors is also extremely annoying.

 

[Hsvwolf]

Shearerisms …….”They we’re Magnificent “ …. “ He was magnificent “ … “The throw in was magnificent ” …. “ My half time cup of tea was magnificent “ ….. Basically everything’s ****ing magnificent

 

[WolvesAndCows]

They scored too early

 

[SingYourHeartsOut]

I think that's a misunderstanding of what XG is. It's really only an improved version of shots on target.

If a team has had 1 shot on target and is winning 1-0, while their opponent has had 3 shots on target, nobody is surprised because that kind of thing happens all the time. All XG does ultimately, is factor out that those 3 shots could have been 40 yard daisy cutters that trickled to the keeper so would never have been goals.

All the people who moan about it just don't understand it.

'Our xG was 3.48 v 0.48 so we were unlucky to lose 0-2.' No, you should work on your bloody finishing!

 

[Hot Fuss]

I think that's a misunderstanding of what XG is. It's really only an improved version of shots on target.

If a team has had 1 shot on target and is winning 1-0, while their opponent has had 3 shots on target, nobody is surprised because that kind of thing happens all the time. All XG does ultimately, is factor out that those 3 shots could have been 40 yard daisy cutters that trickled to the keeper so would never have been goals.

Hwangs goal was from about 6 yards out but was a tricky angle. Cunhas chance was a sitter almost on the goal line.

Can’t believe the expected goals from those 2 chances would be 0.4??

 

[SingYourHeartsOut]

Hwangs goal was from about 6 yards out but was a tricky angle. Cunhas chance was a sitter almost on the goal line.

Can’t believe the expected goals from those 2 chances would be 0.4??

It's not perfect, as you can see from the different sites. However if you check those two on understat Hwang was 0.08, should have been blocked and saved. Cunha didn't even register on the basis that you couldn't really call whatever it was he did a goal effort! However all that really means it's imperfect, not meaningless.

 

[Ramrod]

“The field of play”……. Do you mean the pitch?? Mikey Burrows and Thommo are shockers for this, they say it all the time.

Thankfully I get to see more games than I listen to these days

 

[Lupus ad Penn]

I blame Ron Atkinson, with his “early doors“ and his references to “ the back stick”.

 

[Jawwfc]

Not exactly a phrase but Sky seem to name drop Man United in a lot of games which don't involve them.

My particular favourite this year was during Forest Brentford the commentator stated something a long the lines of:

" a reminder if this result stops the same man united are in the bottom half"

As if it was relevant to the game and anyone outside of Man United fans and Sky really give two so and so's about it.

 

[Contrarian]

All the people who moan about it just don't understand it.

'Our xG was 3.48 v 0.48 so we were unlucky to lose 0-2.' No, you should work on your bloody finishing!

And take a look at your goalie!

 

[Pagey]

Michael Owen has come out with some dumb stuff,

If it rains the pitch becomes wet.
I love these players with two feet.
If they don't score, they don't usually win.
They've got 2 strikers on, and they're both playing up front.

 

[WWFC4EVA]

Ah, but that really exists.

It’s leads to my toilet after 6 pints and a mutton vindaloo

As a sufferer of diverticular disease and IBS, that's exactly what I regard as a corridor of uncertainty!!! Lol

 

[Mr Sizzle]

One that boils my pizzz is “Trent”

A funny one is “half a yard”… who even uses full yards as a measure let alone half ones

 

[Mr Sizzle]

Shearerisms …….”They were Magnificent “ …. “ He was magnificent “ … “The throw in was magnificent ” …. “ My half time cup of tea was magnificent “ ….. Basically everything’s ****ing magnificent

Don’t forget - “sublime”. Usually reserved for moments whereas magnificent is usually used for performances… I need to get out more

 

[Norman Bell]

Michael Owen has come out with some dumb stuff,

If it rains the pitch becomes wet.
I love these players with two feet.
If they don't score, they don't usually win.
They've got 2 strikers on, and they're both playing up front.

I remember that brainless buffoon being the pundit at a Carlisle United Third Found FA Cup tie and suggesting the pitch looked dry and needed watering. What is wrong with that some may ask, well it was delayed by over two weeks as Cumbria had some terrible flooding in 2009 with thousands of properties and businesses ruined due to water damage and there were sadly fatalities so the last thing anyone needed up there was a good watering ................

 

[goldfish]

The Press
Transition
Phases

What's happened to our beautiful game???

There were always new-fangled tactics with changing language. The 4-4-2 was fancy and revolutionary at one point.

 

[SingYourHeartsOut]

One that boils my pizzz is “Trent”

A funny one is “half a yard”… who even uses full yards as a measure let alone half ones

Well the 6 yard box, the 18 yard box, the 12 yards to the penalty spot, the wall being back 10 yards, apart from that though hardly ever.

 

[derbyrameater]

Didn't Hugh Johns of Star Soccer on occasions say "he hit it with his left peg".
That used to nauseate me at the time but in the grand scheme of things I guess it was bugger all.

And “Give it Amber” with the accent

 

[Oldgoldilox]

Lackadaisical. One of those words that has gone out of popular use except by commentators. Except many actually incorrectly say lacksadaisical.

And anything that geordie **** John Murray says.