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Weekly English Football Phrase: To prove to be a handful

Each week we explain a soccer phrase or cliché on our weekly languagecaster podcast. You can find many more examples by going to our football cliché page here.

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This week’s English for football expression is the phrase to be a handful which means that something or someone is difficult to handle or control. In football this is used when one team has difficulty controlling or defending against a player from the opposing team. The phrase often collocates with the verb to prove as in ‘… Chris Maguire proved to be a handful for Celtic with his vigour‘ which means that the Scottish side Celtic were unable to control Chris Maguire because of his power or pace. The phrase can also be used without the verb to be in it. So, recently, Wayne Rooney has been playing very well for his club Manchester United and in this week’s Champions League game against AC Milan he scored twice and proved a real handful for the Rossoneri defence. To prove to be a real handful.

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Further reading

Newspaper Headline: Christmas No 1

Newspaper Headlines: Christmas No 1

In this football language post we explain the newspaper headline, 'Christmas No 1' from the Independent newspaper about Liverpool being top