Internet Culture

A mocking nickname for teams that score most of their goals from corners, free kicks, and throw-ins rather than open play. It implies they can't break teams down through actual football and have to rely on set pieces to get results. Sometimes it's fair criticism, sometimes it's just cope from fans whose team just lost to a header from a corner.

Choking under pressure. Blowing a lead, collapsing in the title race, or failing when it matters most. "To bottle it" means you couldn't handle the moment. Teams get labelled as bottlers based on historical collapses, and the tag sticks even after they win something. Central to football banter, especially for fanbases with painful near-misses in their history.

Winning ugly through time-wasting, cynical fouls, provocation, surrounding the ref, and anything else that bends the rules' spirit. Purists hate it, but it works, especially for underdogs or teams protecting a lead. The term has flipped from insult to badge of honour for some fanbases. Diego Costa made an entire career out of being a world-class shithouse.

Where people go after a bad take or a loss. "He's in the mud" means someone's having a terrible time, either a player struggling or a fan whose predictions went wrong. "Clear of the mud" means things have improved. Football Twitter uses it constantly to celebrate rivals' misfortune or mock people who were confidently wrong.