Inverting the Pyramid cover art

Inverting the Pyramid

The History of Football Tactics

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Inverting the Pyramid

By: Jonathan Wilson
Narrated by: Damian Lynch
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About this listen

Winner of the British Sports Book Awards

Football Book of the Year

The fifteenth anniversary edition, fully revised and updated, of Jonathan Wilson's modern classic.

In the modern classic, Jonathan Wilson pulls apart the finer details of the world's game, tracing the global history of tactics, from modern pioneers right back to the beginning, when chaos reigned. Along the way, he looks at the lives of great players and thinkers who shaped the sport, and probes why the English, in particular, have proved themselves unwilling to grapple with the abstract.

Fully revised and updated, this fifteenth-anniversary edition analyses the evolution of modern international football, including the 2022 World Cup, charting the influence of the great Spanish, German and Portuguese tacticians of the last decade, whilst pondering the effects of footballs increased globalisation and commercialisation.

©2018 Jonathan Wilson (P)2018 Orion Publishing Group Coaching Football (Soccer) Sports Portugal Game

Critic Reviews

"One of the most revelatory sports books of the year." (Scotland on Sunday)

"Masterful...it could be the best thing to have happened to English football in years." (Time Out)

"Gloriously readable, eccentric and informative." (Metro)
All stars
Most relevant  
One thing you know is that, when reading a book by Jonathan Wilson, you will come out the other end better for it. I’m not sure how he does it but almost every time he writes a book, it is full of a vast array of research and insight that most other writers can’t seem to reach. He truly is on another level.

Inverting The Pyramid isn’t the kind of book that you can listen to whilst on the go. It’s detail and depth require 100% of your attention so it’s best left to the quiet moments of your day or for nights in bed.

I loved the background stories on managers like Bielsa who, as it turns out, has a video library deeper than anyone else in world football. There is so much inside this book that you will constantly be surprised.

Thank you Jonathan for another brilliant book. It’s just a shame it took me so long to get to Inverting The Pyramid.

Something for the thinking football fan

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I really loved this book all the way through. Great history and well narrated. as a young man there's some influential figures I'd never heard of before

insightful book

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fantastically detailed and comprehensive. may be too dry for some as the meticulous nature of his research leaves few stones unturned.

excellent

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this book adequately details thr history of football tactics. I really enjoyed the beginning with the chaos of all sorts of theories emerging. i liked the end because I knew the coaches. most of the bulk of the book 30's to 90's I didnt have much of a base off so was a bit lost. the games he described were interesting but often I did lose focus on the narrator and drifted a lot.

adequate book

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