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'This tome delivers a top-class, thorough, and, most importantly, engaging discussion of football tactics. Boring topic, great cover, revelatory book. Buy it.' (MAXIM )

'an outstanding work, cerebral and fully engaging...the football book of the decade' (SUNDAY BUSINESS POST )

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Whether it's Terry Venables keeping his wife up late at night with diagrams on scraps of paper spread over the eiderdown, or the classic TV sitcom of moving the salt & pepper around the table top in the transport cafe, football tactics are now part of the fabric of everyday life. Steve McLaren's switch to an untried 3-5-2 against Croatia will probably go down as the moment he lost his slim credibility gained from dropping David Beckham; Jose Mourinho, meanwhile, was often brought to task for trying to smuggle the long ball game back into English football. Here Jonathan Wilson pulls apart the modern game, traces the world history of tactics from modern pioneers right back to beginning where chaos reigned. Along the way he looks at the lives of great players and thinkers who shaped the game, and probes why the English, in particular, have 'proved themselves unwilling to grapple with the abstract'.

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19 Reviews

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4.5 out of 5 stars (19 customer reviews)

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19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliance. Everything to love about football. , 19 Mar 2009

By	R. ANDERSON "reubster" (uk) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Inverting the Pyramid: The History of Football Tactics: A History of Football Tactics (Hardcover)

I would like to see all the UK's cliche-spouting, brain-deadening, parochial and myopic TV pundits suspended until they've read, and can pass a written test on this book. There's more sense in a few pages than I've ever heard from Alan Hansen. Anyone who ever again says "You just need to pick the best 11 players... ". There should be an official injunction against Kevin Keegan ever becoming manager at another club.

The best part is, it looks like a dry technical textbook.. but it's actually madly passionate about the game, the characters, the colour, the place of football in wider-culture and the national identity.

His analysis of Croatia v England during the qualifiers for Euro08 is deeply cathartic; explaining specifically and simply how we were so effectively carved up. I was also amazed by the evidence showing that England's football character hasn't changed in 100-odd years - from the start the game here was about passion and workrate over technique and skill (this is only just starting to change). And by his explanation of how the game spread around the world via trade routes. And by his observation that Real Madrid are habitually the whipping boys of whichever club is the new force in Europe (Benfica, Ajax, AC Milan..) - so hello Liverpool. I was surprised by the heat and violence of the Argentine game, and the bewildering decay of Uruguay and Hungary. And Roy Hodgson, what a bloke!

The one thing I thought is missing from the book is an in-depth analysis of Wenger at Arsenal and the shake-up he's given the UK game, though now I've reached the end I suspect he would say that, as beautiful as they can be to watch, there's nothing new tactically (they're basically a traditional 4-4-2..)

Oh and some technical insight into the great Lampard-Gerrard paradox.

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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars destined to become a classic, 9 Nov 2008

By	unclesand (Nevada, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Inverting the Pyramid: The History of Football Tactics: A History of Football Tactics (Hardcover)

this is quite possibly the best book on sports that i have ever read. Much more than a history of the tactical evolution of football, it is a fascinating account of why football has become the most loved and watched sport on the planet. it is comprehensive in its detail, but never less than readable and engrossing - i am currently on my second time through. it is very well illustrated with diagrams that explain the text. i cannot recommend it highly enough to anyone who loves the sport and is interested in how it got to where we are now, or for that matter to anyone just interested in the history of the world over the last century or so - a great read.

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Top notch punditry on the page., 25 Aug 2009

By	russell clarke "stipesdoppleganger" (halifax, west yorks) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)

Remember that old Harry Enfield sketch where old footballers ran in a line just chasing the ball? Well that's not too far off how the game was once and then somebody got the idea that wouldn't it be better if we started using more of the pitch , didn't just kick and rush and started passing the ball to each other. Thus the game evolved and then kept on evolving . And one of these days somebody will inform Everton .
Silly jibes aside Inverting The Pyramid is a truly fascinating meticulously researched book on the history of football tactics . What it ultimately concludes with regard to English football is that we value ,perceived effort, graft and toil above tactical nous and technical ability ,something already capably covered in the book Those Feet: A Sensual History of English Football. Until this is remedied and we learn to play to systems using the correct balance of players ,rather than shoehorning in badly matched combinations of the "best" players ( Gerrard & Lampard is the most glaring example ) then we will struggle against the best international teams.
This book though isn't xenophobic in it's viewpoint , covering tactical innovations throughout the game from Brazil , Russia , Austria , Italy , Hungary and Argentina and indeed concentrating mainly on the way coaches from abroad have moved the game on. From Herbert Chapman , manager of Arsenal who invented the W-M system to Hugo Meisl who had Austria playing a 2-3-5 to the great Hungarian side of the 1950,s a "hairs-breadth" from 4-2-4 to the Brazil side coached by Vincete Feola who actually were a 4-2-4 to the all conquering AC Milan managed by Arrigo Sacchi who played 4-4-2 this book covers all the permutations .
There are diagrams laying out the formations with arrows pointing out where players were expected to shift and cover .These can be a tad confusing but do help but it's not just the formations its, the overall tactics that play a part. The sterile catenaccio pioneered by Helenio Herrera and Nereo Rocco is diametrically opposed to the total football envisaged by Rinus Michels .Then there is the pressing game brought to England by none other than the much maligned Graham Taylor and the pressing employed by Sacchi which was more about the "manipulation of space " than closing down the opponent.
Two Englishman are covered extensively in this book .Jimmy Hogan , originally from Burnley , considered to be one of the most influential and brilliant coaches the game has ever seen and the father of central European football and FA technical director Charles Hughes , from...well does it matter ? This is the man who may well have condemned English football to years of blundering inarticulacy from a football perspective .or as Brian Glanville puts it he is the man "who poisoned the wells of English football ". Wilson forensically tears apart his assertion for the long ball game .In fact Wilson pretty much tears apart the way England have approached the game for the last forty years. .
Inverting The Pyramid may be too dry and analytical for some tastes but for anyone remotely interested in football beyond the glamour, showbiz and personalities this is fascinating stuff and the points it makes deeply thought provoking . None more so than his scrutiny of why no top sides came in for Michael Owen when he left Real Madrid ( of course he has now joined Man Utd but the point is still relevant ) and why England were given the run around by Croatia in the qualifiers for Euro 2008. Give the guy a pundits job .

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Certain to Inform and entertain.
I must admit having read the eventual winner of the 2008 William Hill Sporting book of the Year, Marcus Trescothick's 'Coming back to me,' and Wilson's 'Inverting the Pyramid,'... Read more

Published 14 days ago by A. Taylor

5.0 out of 5 stars excellent
a very interesting and well written book. The flaws in old formations and the reasons for tactical innovations are explained clearly. Read more

Published 22 days ago by Mr. Ciaran Conway

4.0 out of 5 stars Lovely book that made me want to watch in a new way
The bit I loved about this book was the fact that it explained the one side of the game that as a "normal" fan, I've never been able to grasp correctly. Read more

Published 26 days ago by John Dawson

5.0 out of 5 stars The best book on football for years
The good reviews this book has received are fully justified - in my opinion it is the best book written on the sport since Arthur Hopcraft's The Football Man in the late 1960s. Read more

Published 1 month ago by S. Coster

3.0 out of 5 stars interesting but intense
I enjoyed this book it is a very compete and fascinating history. However it is very detailed and is hard going, would only really recommend if you're a football nut otherwise it... Read more

Published 2 months ago by Mr. R. Wardle

5.0 out of 5 stars Inverting the Pyramid review
Just a quick note - very readable, very informative, thoroughly researched. Approachable even for those who aren't as "in to" football as many of us, definitely recommend the... Read more

Published 3 months ago by Mr. P. J. E. Gregory

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best Ever book oon Football Tactics
I found Wilson's Iron Curtain book hard to get into and so approached this with trepidation. How could I be so stupid. Read more

Published 3 months ago by Ping Buzzer 1

3.0 out of 5 stars Leaves you longing for some direct play
In many respects this is the football fan's perfect book: what could be better than an obsessively detailed analysis of tactics and formations? Read more

Published 4 months ago by M. Harrison

5.0 out of 5 stars The best book ive ever read
This is the best book I have ever read!
Its very detailed and it goes all the way back to the start of football. Read more

Published 5 months ago by G. Askew

4.0 out of 5 stars We need to revert the pyramid!
Great to see the evolution of the game except when the defensive coaches get involved. The Don Howe's of this world are not welcome! Read more

Published 5 months ago by Peter Naughton

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