Inverting the pyramid

374 pages

English language

Published Feb. 4, 2009 by Orion.

ISBN:: 978-1-4091-0204-5
OCLC Number:: 312626496

(2 reviews)

Inverting the pyramid is a pioneering soccer book that chronicles the evolution of the game's tactics and the lives of the itinerant coaching geniuses who have spread their distinctive styles across the globe.

Through Jonathan Wilson's brilliant historical detective work we learn how the South Americans shrugged off the British colonial order to add their own finesse to the game; how the Europeans harnessed individual technique and built it into a team structure; how the game once featured five forwards up front, while now a lone striker is not uncommon.

Inverting the Pyramid provides a definitive understanding of the tactical genius of modern-day Barcelona, for the first time showing how their style of play developed from Dutch "Total Football," which itself was an evolution of the Scottish passing game invested by Queen's Park in the 1870s and taken on by Tottenham Hotspur in the 1930s. Inverting the Pyramid has ben …

Inverting the pyramid is a pioneering soccer book that chronicles the evolution of the game's tactics and the lives of the itinerant coaching geniuses who have spread their distinctive styles across the globe.

Through Jonathan Wilson's brilliant historical detective work we learn how the South Americans shrugged off the British colonial order to add their own finesse to the game; how the Europeans harnessed individual technique and built it into a team structure; how the game once featured five forwards up front, while now a lone striker is not uncommon.

Inverting the Pyramid provides a definitive understanding of the tactical genius of modern-day Barcelona, for the first time showing how their style of play developed from Dutch "Total Football," which itself was an evolution of the Scottish passing game invested by Queen's Park in the 1870s and taken on by Tottenham Hotspur in the 1930s. Inverting the Pyramid has ben called the "Big Daddy" (Zonal Marking) of soccer tactics books; it is essential for any coach, fan, player, or manager, of the beautiful game.

5 editions

franksbooks reviewed Inverting The Pyramid by Jonathan Wilson

Review of 'Inverting The Pyramid' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

I lost a bit of interest as i got further into this book. The later chapters, while discussing some of the more familiar parts of football were particularly dissatisfying, Wilson’s constant references in those chapters back to some of the earlier history felt forced and repetitive. But you have to read it, if not to learn some great history of football but then to be inspired to find footage of some of the great teams referenced throughout. I’m particularly disappointed that an Australian bookseller sourced this book from an American distributor and hence had to put up with the out of place use of the “s” word throughout, a term which I’m fairly certain the sunderland loving curmudgeon would never use himself.

zz

rated it

July 28, 2015

Subjects

Offense
Coaching
Soccer
Defense
History