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Looking behind you before receiving the ball to see where defenders and teammates are. The best midfielders do it constantly, multiple times before the ball arrives. It lets them know whether to turn, lay it off, or switch play. Players who don't check their shoulder get caught on the ball or miss options. Xavi was famous for how often he scanned the pitch.

Getting under the ball with a short backswing to lift it over someone, usually a goalkeeper who's come off their line. You need a soft touch and good judgment of distance. When it works, you look brilliant. When it doesn't, you look like you should have just passed.

When the opposition doesn't score. The term comes from the days when stats were written on paper, and a match with no goals conceded left the sheet clean. Keepers and defenders track their clean sheet totals, and records like Chelsea's 24 in 2004-05 get remembered. It's one of the main ways to measure defensive performance.

Statement that one player is definitively better than another. "Messi is clear of Ronaldo" or "Haaland clears Kane." Leaves no room for nuance - it's a complete dismissal of the comparison. Often followed by "and it's not even close." Used in debates where fans don't want to engage with actual arguments and just want to state their conclusion as fact.

The standard that VAR is supposed to use before overturning referee decisions. In theory, only intervene if the original call was clearly wrong. In practice, nobody agrees on what's clear or obvious, especially for handball and soft penalties. The phrase has become a punchline for whenever VAR makes a controversial call that seems subjective rather than definitive.