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Reader question: Please explain “spanner in the works” in the following (Three Things: Man United vs. Liverpool, ESPNFC.com, March 16, 2017): A trio of thoughts from Liverpool’s 3-0 win vs. Man United…. When they did have possession, they over-deliberated. Rafael, bursting from full-back, was a threat, but suffered terribly from a lack of an ally on his right flank. Juan Mata refuses to be tethered there; the Spaniard is becoming a spanner in the works. My comments: In other words, Mata, the United player from Spain, is becoming disruptive to the team’s defense and offense. He does not link well with his teammates. If he were a piece of cog in a machine, he does not fit well with other cogs (being too big or small in size in comparison with others, for instance), which as a result means that the whole machine won’t be able to function seamlessly and perfectly. Here, Mata is actually likened to a spanner, or a wrench, one of the most important everyday tools of any manufacturing factory. As a matter of fact, he’s likened to a spanner thrown in the works. The proper phrase is “put a spanner in the works” - works being colloquialism for a large machine. To put a spanner in the works, of course, is to throw one’s spanner into the gears and thus bring the machine to a crumbling halt. This phrase, a British expression, is generally believed to be inspired by disgruntled workers in the industrial-revolution era, by workers who did so as a measure of protest or sabotage or whatever – or they did so simply to demonstrate their overall displeasure at the machine, which took and continues to take jobs from people. | 
