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The classic history of soccer tactics— “masterful” and “deliciously nerdy” (Time Out)
In this modern classic, soccer journalist 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 examines 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 analyzes 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 football's increased globalization and commercialization.
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"A wonderful and comprehensive treatment of this important topic. Make sure to secure the revised and updated edition, of course."
— Stan Veuge, Senior Fellow, Economic Policy, American Enterprise Institute
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Jonathan Wilson is the author of eight books and has 119,000 Twitter followers. Inverting the Pyramid was named NSC Football Book of the Year in 2009 and won the Premio Antonio Ghirelli prize as Italian soccer book of the year in 2013. His books Behind the Curtain: Travels in Eastern European Football, The Anatomy of England, and The Outsider: A History of the Goalkeeper were shortlisted for the NSC award in 2007, 2011, and 2013. Wilson is the founder and editor of the soccer quarterly the Blizzard, writes for the Guardian, SI.com, FoxSoccer, and Sports Illustrated, and is a columnist for World Soccer. He was voted Football Writer of the Year by the Football Supporters Federation in 2012. He lives in London.
Damian Lynch is a voice talent and Earphones Award–winning narrator.