Why are footballers (most sports people in fact) always banging on about ‘taking each game as it comes’? Is it some kind of sports psychology technique? Ignore the blindingly obvious fact that this is so unoriginal as to be offensive, in order to maintain focus? Maybe, but it certainly doesn’t make for an interesting listen.
You can almost hear the desperation in the interviewer’s voice, as they try frantically to incite any response that won’t have the producer screaming in their ear piece and viewers turning away in their thousands to put the kettle on.
There must be a reason for this phenomenon; otherwise it surely wouldn’t be so widespread. One might come to the conclusion that it’s just an easy way for players to get through an interview, giving away as little as possible. But why?
Recent examples of what can happen to players and managers who dare to express an opinion are all too common. Joey Barton had the temerity to make a prediction or two about upcoming fixtures via his twitter account last week and the FA accordingly wrote to him warning about ‘insider information’ (I hasten to add that Joey’s QPR weren’t involved in any of the games). With this sort of precedent, is it any wonder players are happy to mutter a couple of banalities about ‘concentrating on the next match’?
It’s all too easy (too, too easy) to criticise footballers for boring post-match interviews, but in actual fact we should be commending them! To wriggle out of saying anything of any meaning, when that’s precisely what interviewers are trying to get them to do, takes some skill.
Players aren’t trying to say interesting and insightful things in their post-match interviews; they’re doing all they can do to avoid it! In fact, I would go as far as to say plenty of managers out there would do well to follow the example of their young charges, and I’m sure their lawyers would agree with me.
For pundits, the propensity to rely on clichés and idioms (idia?) speaks of something altogether different. If I had (insert denomination of money of your choice) for every time Mark Lawrenson, or anybody else for that matter, made reference to teams being in ‘Championship winning form’ due to their ‘not playing great’ but ‘grinding out results’, I would have (insert larger denomination of money).
Now, I’m certainly far from saying that picking up points while playing poorly is not a decent way to go about challenging for the league title. What I am saying is that it’s really boring when lazy punditry bandies this sort of phrase about as if no-one’s said exactly the same thing countless times before!
Why isn’t anyone ever described as being in a ‘rich vein’ of anything other than ‘form’? What is ‘squeaky bum time’? And why does it only occur when teams are in a ‘relegation dog-fight’, or tussling at the top of the table? And if I hear one more pundit talking about ‘the hairdryer treatment’ during the half-time interval, I might have to send one or two teacups flying myself!
Having said all that, one has to understand that there are only so many ways you can phrase descriptions of what are, after all, quite similar events. Seen in this light, the reliance on the stock phrases so often a part of football analysis, seems less about laziness and perhaps more about a kind of shorthand, a code for football fans, to bring context to what’s being described.
The oh-so-familiar words instantly communicate much more than could be said with equivalent, less emotionally primed descriptions of the game and everything that goes with it. If a player is described as ‘box to box’ for example, supporters the world over immediately know that this is somebody with stamina who can and will cover a lot of ground and, if you’ll forgive the expression, give you ‘lung busting’ runs and most probably ‘die for the cause’ (you get the idea).
So next time you’re preparing to launch a volley of abuse in the direction of your TV, radio or computer screen at reporting or punditry that ‘leaves a little to be desired’, don’t. Stop and think, maybe there’s a little more to it than meets the eye. Just take each match as it comes!