Inverting the Pyramid

The History of Football Tactics

By: Jonathan Wilson

Narrated by: Damian Lynch

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

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)

Epic book!!

Extremely detailed and well documented work by Jonathan Wilson. I really enjoyed every transition through the history of football.
The start is very slow but the book gets better as you advance.
A must for every football fan that wants to understand the evolution of this sport.