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Football Phrase of the Week: (a) Low Block
This week’s football phrase is the noun phrase ‘a low block’. This phrase can describe how Manchester City played against Arsenal on Sunday. You can read the transcript for this post below, while you can also check out our glossary of footballing phrases here and visit our site to access all our previous posts and podcasts. If you have any suggestions or questions, then you can contact us at admin@languagecaster.com
DB: Welcome to LearnEnglishThroughFootball.com’s weekly football language podcast. My name’s Damon and I am one half of the languagecaster team. Over here in Tokyo, where I am based, it is finally autumn weather. It is great to be able to feel cool air again after months of heat and humidity. I believe in London, where Damian the other half of the team is based, it has been cooler for a while now. I hope it isn’t too cold though!
Turning to football, I enjoyed the weekend action in the Premier League where my team, Liverpool, won the Merseysicde derby 2-1 and remain top of the league. They also have a healthy lead over rivals Arsenal and Manchester City who played out a 1-1 draw on Sunday. It is from this match that we have today’s weekly football phrase, which is ‘a low block‘.
Stinger: You are listening to Languagecaster (in Cantonese)
DF: Yes you are listening to Languagecaster.com, also known as LearnEnglishThroughFootball.com, and that message was in Cantonese.
(a) Low Block
DB: Right, a low block. What does this mean? Well, it means a team sets up its formation or shape to be very difficult to score against. Typically a team might have five defenders in one line and four players in another line, leaving a solitary striker. The two lines of players are close together and are ‘low‘, meaning they are close to their own penalty area or box. High up the field obviously means closer to the opposition.
So we combine ‘low’ meaning the place on the pitch, and ‘block’, which means to stop – a low block.
Having a low block compresses the space between players, making it very difficult for the opposition to pass into or enter the penalty area. They tend to use long shots and crosses into the box instead.
In the Arsenal versus Manchester City game, City surprised a lot of people by playing a low block after they went 1-0 up.
Here’s an example of the phrase used in football.london.com: ‘For large parts of the contest, it was a slog for Arsenal as they tried and failed to break down City’s low block.’
It is unusual to see Manchester City under Pep Guardiola play so defensively. For the majority of the game they were happy for Arsenal to have possession, have the ball, and to sit deep.
(to) Sit Deep
DB: To sit deep means the same as ‘to have a low block’. Here, deep is used instead of low to mean close to your own area.
(to) Park the Bus
DB: A more casual way to say ‘sit deep‘ or ‘use a low block‘ is to say a team parked the bus. Many people say that this phrase was first used by Jose Mourinho when he was Chelsea’s manager. He was describing a negative Tottenham team who played very defensively in a meeting between the two London clubs. To park the bus, means to play very defensively, to get a lot of players behind the ball, to have no attacking play. Imagine a bus parked in front of the goal. It is almost impossible to score, so people use ‘to park the bus‘ to mean one team was very negative, boring and defensive.
Stinger: You are listening to Languagecaster (in Hungarian)
DB: Yes, you are listening to languagecaster.com and that message was in Hungarian. So, on today’s show, we looked at ‘a low block’, ‘to sit deep’, and ‘to park the bus’. Drop us a line at admin@languagecaster.com if you have a comment or leave one under the post at LearnEnglishThroughFootball.com. And do the same if you have any ideas for football language or want us to explain any football words or phrases that you’ve heard.
Enjoy all the football this week and we’ll be back soon. Ta-ra!
Learn English Through Football Podcast: A show for football fans to improve their English language skills
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