The Football Dictionary

Defenders can't have eyes everywhere at once. A blindside run is a clever ploy by an attacking player to exploit this. It takes good timing to make the run at the correct time. Too early and the defender will see you, too late and the passing option is gone. Players like Aguero made a career out of blindside runs to deceive defenders.

Internet slang for a player or team that's supposedly washed up, past it, or declining. Gets thrown around constantly and almost never ages well - fans called Ronaldo "finished" after a bad game in 2008 and he played at the top for another 15 years. The term is both a genuine assessment and a way to wind people up. Messi and Ronaldo have both been declared finished about 500 times.

Italian for "director." A deep-lying playmaker who sits in front of the defence and runs the game from there. The regista controls tempo, sprays long passes, switches play, and starts attacks while also tracking back. Andrea Pirlo is the modern example everyone thinks of, though players like Carlos Valderrama did similar things. It's somewhere between a defensive midfielder and a classic number 10.

A transfer involving players going both ways rather than just cash. Sometimes straight swaps, sometimes player plus cash. Gets discussed more than it actually happens because valuations rarely match up and both players need to want to move. Sounds simple in theory but the negotiations are complicated because you need four parties to agree (two clubs, two players).

A chance so easy that missing it is inexcusable. Open goals, simple one-on-ones, headers from two yards out. When you miss a sitter, you hold your head and your teammates look at the floor. The origin of the term is said to have stemmed from Cricket, where a "sitter" would describe a very easy catch so simple that the fielder could practically "sit down" while making it.

A pass that puts your teammate in danger of getting clattered. Usually a slow ball that arrives right as a defender's closing in at full speed. Called a hospital ball because the recipient might end up there. Careless passing under pressure creates them. Good teammates don't play hospital balls; bad ones get their midfielders injured.

A pass played between or behind defenders for a teammate to run onto. The weight has to be perfect - too soft and the keeper gets there, too hard and it runs away. The runner and passer need to read each other's minds. Xavi, Iniesta, and De Bruyne are famous for finding gaps that don't seem to exist.

A measure of pressing intensity. Divide the passes you allow by the defensive actions (tackles, interceptions, fouls) you make in the attacking third. Lower number means more aggressive pressing - you're intervening more often. Higher number means you're sitting off and letting them pass. It's a standard stat now for measuring how much a team presses, though it doesn't tell you how well organized that pressing is.

A visual showing where shots were taken from, usually with size or color indicating xG. You can see at a glance whether a team is shooting from good or bad positions. Shot maps reveal patterns - a striker who only shoots from inside the six-yard box, or a midfielder who tries their luck from everywhere. Post-match analysis uses them constantly to show what chances were created.

The extra stoppage time that always seemed to appear when Manchester United needed a goal under Sir Alex Ferguson (1986-2013). Whether refs actually gave United more time is debatable, but they definitely scored a lot of late winners, especially at Old Trafford. Ferguson's touchline presence and United's habit of pushing until the final whistle made it feel like the clock would never run out on them.