Inverting The Pyramid: The History of Soccer Tactics

I have been reading through this book which is almost the size of the bible. It's loaded full of detailed stories of soccer strategies and ideas. Really good to help a new comer be aware of what has come before. It also give me ideas for things we could try differently in various situations.

Great book, a must read for any coach as it will help them understand the evolution of tactics.

This is, exactly as titled, a history of football tactics, from the unorganized scrum of the mid 19th century through the 'pyramid' days of 2-3-5, to the myriad formations of today. I do not know enough about the history of soccer tactics to speak directly to the accuracy of the history given, but it feels authoritative. It starts in England, switches to Scotland, transfers to Central Europe, on to South America with special attention paid to Brazil, then back to Italy, etc. This focus on how the game spread around the globe and how regional differences were introduced that then went on to have international implications and influences. The book, written by an Englishman, is Anglocentric, but England birthed the country and with the growth of the BPL is sort of the epicenter of the soccer world. All in all a very worthwhile read for anyone interested in learning the history of how soccer is played.

I bought this book as a Christmas gift for my neighbor's son. It's a bit advanced for his age as he's only 10, but loves soccer/football. I figured it would challenge him and he'd grown into the book, making a good gift to help improve reading skill of a loved subject for a young boy. Also thought the book would be a good book for the boys father to read to him as he's a fan too.

Excelente libro

This book is admirable for its erudition and its focus on the evolution of tactics from the playing fields of nineteenth century public schools to the present. One really must admire a British specialist who digs into the entire global picture of football and comes up with a relatively comprehensible narrative out of what must have been reams of club histories and match reports that probably contain very little of the information the author seeks. It is readable, informative and occasionally funny. Here comes the "but". Quality really declines toward the end, as if the author was rushing to meet a publishing deadline or simply outsourced the job to a football fan with a bizarre form of Tourrette's that forces him to spout senseless combinations of numbers such as "3-3-3-1, 4-5-1, 3-4-1-2". The next-to-last chapter is completely unreadable. Whereas other chapters developed the story of a single innovator or the situation in a single country, this one just rushed through a myriad of modern formations and discusses sweeping issues such as the disappearance of the playmaker. Another late chapter devotes incomprehensible amounts of space to an obscure polemic between a football statistician and a future England coach. The central narrative is lost completely, which is tied to another central weakness: the lack of occasional paragraphs to sum up the evolution of tactics as the long procession of teams, coaches and players parade through the foreground of the book and just as quickly disappear from view. The title "Inverting the Pyramid" is a brilliant example of this: it sums up an immense amount of information into a neat little compact literary phrase, but that kind of brilliance is somewhat absent from the rest of the book. In short, I enjoyed the book, I learned a lot from it and I will probably return to it frequently after matches, but it really could have used a little more tidying up from an editor (hopefully in a future edition).

Historic

I purchased this book to learn more about the development of tactics over the years, and that is exactly what I got. This book is truly a "history", as it discusses many people, places, and social contexts as it explains the changes in tactics. This is not a quick and easy read like some current books on soccer, but for the fan who truly loves not only watching the game, but thinking and learning about it, this is a good read. The main reason I gave this 4 instead of 5 stars is that I would have enjoyed more depth at some points regarding specific individuals. There is some of this, but I wanted a bit more. Still, I recommend this book to the passionate and thoughtful fan of the beautiful game.