Premier Vocabulary is a mini-podcast for you to learn football English one word at a time. We have three different levels for you: easy, medium and hard.

This episode is easy so we’re looking at common football words and phrases. Things you use and need to know to play the game.

Summary

Learn more football vocabulary with Premier Skills English. Each lesson in our Premier Vocabulary section looks at one football word or phrase. This lesson looks at the phrase cut back.

You can find more lessons on the side of this page.

Transcript

Rich: Hello my name’s Rich and welcome to Premier Skills English - Premier Vocabulary.

Jack: Hi there! I’m Jack. We’re here to help you with your football English. Premier Vocabulary is a mini-podcast for you to learn football English one word at a time.

Rich: We have three different levels for you: easy, medium and hard.

Jack: This episode is medium so we’re looking at football words and phrases you need to describe what’s happening on the pitch or words and phrases fans and commentators on TV might use. There will be lots of phrasal verbs to learn at this level.

Rich: The phrase we are looking at in this episode is cut back.

Jack: Have a listen to this conversation and see if you can understand the phrase - cut back.

Rich: What a run! He’s gone past one! He’s gone past another!

Jack: There’s a player on the edge of the box. Cut it back!

Rich: Aww! He’s never going to score from there. He should have cut it back.

Jack: So, to cut the ball back is a type of pass on the pitch. This pass always takes place when a player is attacking and usually running with the ball.

Rich: When the player reaches the goal line, the player needs to pass or cross the ball. One option is to cut the ball back - this means to pass the ball back towards a teammate instead of crossing the ball sideways towards the goal.

Jack: A cut back can be very difficult to defend against because the defenders are running towards their own goal and if the ball is cut back they have to turn around very quickly.

Rich: We can speak about cutting the ball back or a cut back. The phrase can be a phrasal verb or a noun. Have a listen:

Jack: Raheem Sterling cut the ball back to Sergio Aguero who scored.

Rich: The defenders could do nothing to stop Daniel James’ cut back and Rashford put the ball past the keeper.

Jack: We also see both the phrasal verb and the noun being used outside of football but with a very different meaning. Both words are connected to reducing things and often connected to money.

Rich: We might speak about cutting back on things when we don’t have very much money. This means to buy fewer things.

Jack: Or we might cut back on things for environmental reasons. I’m cutting back on the amount of plastic I use.

Rich: We might hear about cutbacks in education or the health system. This means that the government is spending less money on these things.

Final whistle

Jack: There is the final whistle!

Rich: We’ll be back soon with more Premier Vocabulary from Premier Skills English.

Jack: Bye for now and enjoy your football.

Discuss

Why is a cutback so difficult to defend against?