When you watch football played at the top level of the English game in the modern era, the pitch can look like a carpet.
Even in the final game of the season, groundskeepers work hard to ensure that the pitch in the majority of Premier League grounds looks as impressive as it did on the opening day of the campaign.
When someone refers to the ‘dirty work’ of football, therefore, they aren’t talking about the fact that a sliding tackle will result in you getting covered in mud, nor is it a reference to the overall state of the pitch. The question is, what is it a reference to?
Unwanted Work
Bill Shankly, the man who is widely considered to be the father of Liverpool Football Club, once said, “A football team is like a piano: you need eight men to carry it and three who can play the damn thing.”
It is fair to say that the vast majority of people who become football players want to be the ones playing the piano, thanks to the fact that that is what ends up winning you matches. Those that are the carriers, meanwhile, can often be considered to be doing the dirty work, which no one else really wants to do. More often than not, it is an expression given to midfielders.
Juan Alvena is tough enough to deal with this smart defending / the dirty work of football pic.twitter.com/xVnFAbyler
— Othman (@othmantactics) September 18, 2025
Not only that, but it is also one that is usually said in relation to defensive midfielders, given the fact that they rarely have to take on the responsibility of scoring or creating goals. Instead, they will be making tackles, running back to offer protection to the defence and doing whatever they can do in order to break up the play of opposition teams. It is a phrase that is making reference to those who do the game’s less glamorous work. Whilst they will often receive praise from those in the know about what it takes to fulfil the position, it won’t be the same praise as the match-winning goalscorer will receive.
For some supporters, who often only focus on the flashy, the dirty work carried out by some players goes entirely unrecognised. Sometimes, the player in question might end up performing a sliding tackle, say, or commit a last-ditch challenge to stop an opposition attack, which can often result in them being shown praise by supporters. More often than not, however, the fact that they get the ball and pass it out to the wings to the ‘piano players’ can result in some sections of the fanbase considering them to be little more than a ‘crab’, constantly passing it from side to side instead of being more progressive. To do the dirty work is a thankless task.