Hi,
“Despite not electing to use a five-man midfield to try and match Arsenal, his side were disciplined in staying behind the ball to force the hosts into attempting increasingly elaborate ways of opening them up, while the pace of Gray kept Mustafi and Koscielny honest on the break.”
I wonder if you agree with the way ‘honest’ was utilized in the original. If kept, I’d expect it sound like ‘the pace of Gray kept Mustafi and Koscielny working in an honest way …’ meaning they were being kept on their toes. (?)
I looked at several online dictionaries, and I have to admit, they lack the definition I usually associate with “keep honest”. This from dictionary.com/browse/keep-someone-honest is on the right track: “To pitch close to a batter; throw at a batter : Keep him honest, which means, make the batter afraid of you” - well, sorry dictionary writer, it is not really to make the batter afraid of you, it is to keep him from crowding the plate.
In your example, Gray’s speed means that Mustafi and Koscielny aren’t going to get an easy fast break, they will have to earn it though hard work, the “honest way”.
Often, “keep honest” has to do with making sure a player doesn’t try to gain an advantage by shifting slightly out of position. If players tend to be “cheating” a little to the right, the other team might play the ball more to the left to “keep them honest”.
Aha, Gray’s speed made them ‘stay put’ during their team’s counters, from fear of not returning in time to cover their positions.
I think this is a case when only a person in the know could help.
Thank you, Luschen.