Rusty

Rust is something that happens when metal is oxidized – it becomes a brownish, reddish colour. But to be rusty also means that your skills are not as good as they once were because of a lack of practice and this is something that is happening with footballers at the moment as they return to action after a long layoff.

Sometimes when players have little time to prepare they may be not fully fit but they need to regain match fitness in order to become sharper, to do things quicker and of course to last a full 90 minutes. Commentators can use such phrases as an ‘error-strewn game’ which is a match with a lot of mistakes; sloppy passes (maybe they have been over or under-hit) and these are passes that are misplaced as they fail to reach their intended target. Players are not quite up to speed and this means their play may be lacking in quality as they take a while to get going and get match fit. Once they have played a couple more matches they should start to regain fitness and become sharper and shake off the rustiness.