This post explains the football term ‘To sit deep’.
- Find out more about this phrase by reading the transcript below.
- You can also find many more examples of soccer vocabulary by going to our football cliches page here and our huge football glossary here.
Football Language: To sit deep
Teams can be organised according to positions, for example 4-4-2 or 3-5-2 but a decision about where the team sets up is also important. Do they press forward and ‘squeeze’ the opposition or do they sit deep and wait for the opposition’s attacks? Some teams like to put all their players behind the ball and sit deep in their own half – sometimes even in or around their own penalty box – and maybe by sitting deep they can counter-attack their opponents.
Example:Â The Irish team sat deep against their Danish opponents in the hope of catching them on the counter attack in the first leg of their World Cup play-off.
Example: ‘The Sky Sports pundit expects Jose Mourinho’s side to sit deep at Anfield, when they face Liverpool live on Sky Sports Premier League on Saturday.’ Skysports.com (14thOctober 2017).