A Subscribe: Weekly Football Phrase
Each week the languagecaster team will explain a football phrase or cliche for learners of English who love the sport. On this week’s show is the English for football phrase to shore up. Click on the link below to hear the word or phrase explained, while you can also read the transcript below that. You can also find many more examples by going to our football phrase page here football cliches here and our huge football glossary here.
Listen here: To shore up
This week’s English for football phrase is ‘to shore up‘. This phrase is almost always followed by the word defence and is used to say that a weak defence needs to become stronger. Originally, to shore up meant to put some support against something to make it stronger, for example a weak house wall may have wood attached to make it stronger, to shore up something. In football, we say a team needs to shore up its defence, maybe by bringing in a new defender or changing tactics. In the Premier league, Manchester United are top of the table, but most teams playing them have had a lot of chances to score. Their left back, Evra believes they need to shore up the defence if they want to win the title. To shore up.