Alan Shearer: MotD "back of the net" watch.

[isvicthere?]

I´ve long had a theory that Alan Shearer, as a pundit, overuses the term "back of the net". This weekend I put it to the test. On MotD he said it seven times, compared to zero by both the other contributors. I think he deserves an extra point, since he even said it about a game that was a 0-0 draw.

I can´t guarantee to watch every episode of MotD this season, so, urban, help me in my quest to enumerate!

 

[surreybrowncap]

He started young...

 

[JimW]

Liquid football?

 

[stavros]

 

[isvicthere?]

He wasn´t on last night, although they replaced him with Danny Murphy, a Mini Me Shearer by anyone´s reckoning.

Looking forward to more "net"-based cliché-wrangling soon...

 

[stavros]

He wasn´t on last night, although they replaced him with Danny Murphy, a Mini Me Shearer by anyone´s reckoning.

Murphy's a bit more incisive than Shearer.

If Shearer had been on they'd have done a lot of well-worn ribbing about how worried he is about Kane overtaking his goalscoring record (since football began in 1992).

 

[isvicthere?]

I don´t intend to make a habit of this, and want to concentrate mainly on the Saturday show, but Shearer was on the shorter MotD 2 last night. He managed to avoid saying it until almost the end, but then blurted it out three times in very quick succession. Hat trick!

 

[marty21]

He was on MOTD2 if you want to continue your research , I don't remember him uttering the phrase.

ETA , I will listen closer next time !

 

[Petcha]

I do enjoy MOTD I have to admit. Lineker is a class act. Never got the bitching about how much he gets paid, he'd get paid far more elsewhere.

And I like Shearer too. Never noticed the back of the net thing but ill keep an eye out. They need to get Keane in though for a bit of psychoness.

 

[marty21]

Murphy's a bit more incisive than Shearer.

If Shearer had been on they'd have done a lot of well-worn ribbing about how worried he is about Kane overtaking his goalscoring record (since football began in 1992).

Just the record for Premiership goals for one club , he has many years until the goal record overall is breached .

 

[Steel Icarus]

Apparently it's just under 13 league goals a season average if Kane plays til 35 like Shearer did.

 

[Boris Sprinkler]

just checking this was here.

 

[isvicthere?]

He was on MOTD2 if you want to continue your research , I don't remember him uttering the phrase.

ETA , I will listen closer next time !

It´s so much a part of his DNA, it´s almost like breathing to him!

 

[Pickman's model]

I´ve long had a theory that Alan Shearer, as a pundit, overuses the term "back of the net". This weekend I put it to the test. On MotD he said it seven times, compared to zero by both the other contributors. I think he deserves an extra point, since he even said it about a game that was a 0-0 draw.

I can´t guarantee to watch every episode of MotD this season, so, urban, help me in my quest to enumerate!

on the plus side he hasn't kicked any other pundits in the head in recent years

 

[[62]]

I do enjoy MOTD I have to admit. Lineker is a class act. Never got the bitching about how much he gets paid, he'd get paid far more elsewhere.

I think there's a bit of a culture wars witch hunt against Lineker for his supposed 'wokeness'. Just makes me like him even more.

Speaking of Danny Murphy, he's a great pundit for just sticking to the facts. I also like the way that he looks permanently like he's been up all night thinking about permutations for Burnley's back four or how Brighton are going to counter their next opponent's pace down the left flank on Saturday. Or like he was drinking until 2am.

 

[Zapp Brannigan]

I think there's a bit of a culture wars witch hunt against Lineker for his supposed 'wokeness'. Just makes me like him even more.

Speaking of Danny Murphy, he's a great pundit for just sticking to the facts. I also like the way that he looks permanently like he's been up all night thinking about permutations for Burnley's back four or how Brighton are going to counter their next opponent's pace down the left flank on Saturday. Or like he was drinking until 2am.

Danny Murphy was a very un-English style of player - none of the relentless workrate of the likes of Gerrard, but always playing with his head up and analysing the game going on around him. Good, thoughtful pundit in a sea of "well Brian, I hit it and there it was in the back of the net" contemporaries.

 

[isvicthere?]

Danny Murphy was a very un-English style of player - none of the relentless workrate of the likes of Gerrard, but always playing with his head up and analysing the game going on around him. Good, thoughtful pundit in a sea of "well Brian, I hit it and there it was in the back of the net" contemporaries.

Indeed. Also, nice to see that, long after his time, Brian Moore can still be affectionately referenced in the arena of football cliché. I think this might be partly attributable to him being mentioned by Super Hans in a late episode of Peep Show.

 

[stavros]

Re. Shearer, I think his catchphrase extends further than the OP said. It's "And really he should be sticking that in the back of the net". The subtext is, "because I would have".

Other pundits have go-to phrases. "Defenders hate playing against pace" was Hansen's banker. Dennis Taylor on the snooker is always banging on about "fractions".

Plus there's the habit I have of pronouncing all middle and long distance runners with a North Eastern accent, thanks to Brendan Foster and Steve Cram.

 

[Steel Icarus]

See the now-incredibly-annoying "where's the WHITE ball going?" bellowed by John Virgo every fifteen minutes

 

[surreybrowncap]

I don´t intend to make a habit of this, and want to concentrate mainly on the Saturday show, but Shearer was on the shorter MotD 2 last night. He managed to avoid saying it until almost the end, but then blurted it out three times in very quick succession. Hat trick!

Yeah - correct he did indeed say it 3 times at the end.
Mark Chapman at least once.
Spread Betting needs to get involved....

 

[stavros]

See the now-incredibly-annoying "where's the WHITE ball going?" bellowed by John Virgo every fifteen minutes

I don't that stands out as a particularly annoying Virgoism, in what is quite a broad field.

 

[isvicthere?]

Wasn´t on this Saturday, so waiting for next Shearer-watch.

 

[isvicthere?]

Yesterday (03.09.22) he only said it twice. I think this is mainly because a large part of his contributions was taken up with a double whinge about VAR, reducing description of actual play.

So far his figures are: two Saturday episodes; nine mentions, making an average of 4.5 per episode.

 

[stavros]

I remember when MOTD first came back, in 1992, they wisely had three pundits, in Hansen, Brooking and Lineker, who were able to comment on different aspects of the game from their playing experiences. I suppose Shearer was almost exclusively a goalscorer, so that's why it's his focal point.

You rarely get keepers doing punditry. I think I've seen Schmeichel Senior doing it, and maybe Shay Given once or twice, but other than that it's only been Bob Wilson, who of course was an anchorman.

 

[WouldBe]

If Shearer had been on they'd have done a lot of well-worn ribbing about how worried he is about Kane overtaking his goalscoring record (since football began in 1992).

They did that yesterday even giving a countdown of how many more Kane needed to beat Shearer.

 

[stavros]

Shearer can always say he scored 23 in the old Football League, and that neither of them are anywhere near Jimmy Greaves' 357 top flight goals.

 

[isvicthere?]

Shearer can always say he scored 23 in the old Football League, and that neither of them are anywhere near Jimmy Greaves' 357 top flight goals.

Yeah, but football was only really invented in 1992. No-one believes that football really existed before the Premier.

 

[stavros]

 

[isvicthere?]

Shearer can always say he scored 23 in the old Football League, and that neither of them are anywhere near Jimmy Greaves' 357 top flight goals.

Also, Greavsie´s strike rate for England is the highest in the modern game: 44 from 57 caps = 0.77 per game. Second would be Lineker 48/60 = 0.6; third is Shearer 30/63 = 47; fourth is Charlton 49/106 = 0.46; fifth is Owen 40/89 = 0.449; sixth is Rooney 53/120 = 0.441. (I´ve omitted Kane, since he´s still playing, but his England strike rate is currently 0.7.)

However, these are all dwarfed by George Camsell, who, with 18 goals from 9 internationals, averaged two a game in the late ´20s/early ´30s.

 

[stavros]

If you look at the top ten post-1992 top flight top scorers Henry is top for goals per game, a little ahead of Kane, who's almost exactly the same as Aguero. Other than them only Shearer has more than a goal every other game.