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Football Phrase of the Week: Shooting Boots
In this football phrase of the week we look at the expression, ‘shooting boots‘ after Arsenal’s game at Ipswich Town in the Premier League. 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.
Embed from Getty ImagesDF: Hello everyone. This is Damian from the Languagecaster team and I hope you are all doing well. Welcome to this week’s football phrase when we look back at some football language from the weekend. And today we explain the phrase, ‘shooting boots‘ after Bukayo Saka’s performance in the first half against Ipswich Town in the Premier League.
Stinger: You are listening to Languagecaster (in Korean)
In the recent Premier League game between Ipswich Town and Arsenal, the England striker Bukayo Saka had an interesting first half. First of all, he was badly tackled by the Ipswich defender Leif Davis which resulted in a red card – a straight red – for the Ipswich defender. And then in the first half he missed three really good chances to score; he failed to score from any of them. A TV pundit suggested that he had forgotten his shooting boots, which is an expression that means he missed a lot of chances. This expression suggests that the player has worn the wrong boots which makes the player then perform badly.
DF: So, this is how the BBC website reported on those three first-half missed chances for Bukayo Saka (BBC.co.uk, April 20 2025):
- Saka brushes himself down after that bad challenge and then almost scores Arsenal’s third as he cuts inside on the right and curls an effort just wide.
- An even bigger chance for Saka as he is put through one-on-one but, with just the goalkeeper to beat, he fires wide.
- It just won’t go in for Bukayo Saka…this time he stabs a first-time effort from Martin Odegaard’s good ball, wide.
In the first example, Saka’s shot went wide of the goal by a short distance – a nice effort that was a little unlucky but still wide of the post. In the second example, Saka missed an easier chance with only the goalkeeper to beat; he sent the ball wide when it looked easier to score. Then a few minutes later he missed another chance from inside the penalty area when he put the ball wide again. These three chances were all relatively easy but the England striker didn’t have his scoring boots on and missed all three!
Example:’We didn’t play particularly well in the first half and I wasn’t happy with them at half-time, but we improved in the second half and we just didn’t have our shooting boots on tonight.’ (David Moyes: West Ham. co.uk 7 March 2024)
Although we can say that a player has their shooting boots on when they score a lot of goals or convert chances, I think the expression is more common when describing a bad performance from a striker as they miss a lot of chances.
Stinger: You are listening to Languagecaster (in French)
Yes, that message was in French, while we also heard from a Korean speaker earlier on in the show.
So, in this week’s football expression we looked at the phrase, ‘doesn’t have their shooting boots on‘ after Bukayo Saka’s poor first-half performance against Ipswich when he could have scored a hat-trick but in the end didn’t score any. Do you know of any other examples of players that have not had their shooting boots on? And how would you say this phrase in another language that you know? Can you try and maybe use this phrase in a sentence? If so, add it to our forum or to the comments section below.
Enjoy all the football this week and we’ll see you again later on in our regular weekly language podcast when we’ll be looking ahead to the weekend’s fixtures, including the Copa del Rey final between Real Madrid and Barcelona, the Old Firm derby in Scotland and of course the Languagecaster derby between Liverpool and Tottenham! And we’ll also be explaining more football language. Enjoy the football this week and we’ll see you soon. Bye bye.
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