Inverting the Pyramid: The History of Football Tactics

This book does exactly what it sets out to, describing the evolution of football tactics from their formless beginnings when everybody on the pitch, apart from the goalkeeper, dribbled towards the opponents’ goal with team mates “backing up” in case the ball was lost, through the invention of passing (or, as it was delightfully phrased, combination play) in Scotland, the first real formation of 2-3-5, its gradual stalemating till the offside law was changed in the 1920s to allow only two defenders between ball and goal line which in turn led to the withdrawal of the centre half into the back line of a 3-2-5 and the “classic” three defender, two half back, two inside forward, plus centre forward line-up of the W-M or W-W. The show more later adaptations of this formation (in some cases, as in Great Britain, very much later) via the diagonal, through the deep lying centre forward, 4-2-4, 4-4-2, 4-3-3 and 3-5-2, by which time the pyramid of the book’s title had been inverted, leading on to 4-5-1, even 4-6-0, plus the variations of all of these and the pressing game, are given their place and their innovators due recognition.

In particular the histories of football in various countries, Brazil, Argentina, Italy, Austria, Hungary, the USSR, the Netherlands, England, even a foray into the Scandinavian experience, and the life histories of the various coaches concerned, are admirably laid out as is the tension between attack and defence, creativity and negativity, craft and effort. Through it all the importance of system is a given. A well-organised and drilled side will always beat a disorganised one, or one following too rigid a previous template, provided the system is understood and adhered to.

The tendency for any innovations to be imitated at first mainly in a defensive sense is noted and in passing the notions of Charles Reep and Charles Hughes of direct football being particularly effective is knocked on the head, even on statistical grounds. In some cases it can be, as can any system, but against good players who can keep possession directness will fall down.

Whether football’s evolution has ended is a moot point but in the modern world with global TV coverage and worldwide scouting it is unlikely any team will be able to spring a truly revolutionary tactical surprise. But then again before that offside law alteration there had been little or no tactical change for around thirty years. In Britain, the W-M then held sway for another forty or so.

But the centre half disappeared as a half back, wingers disappeared, full backs became wing backs, wing halves and inside forwards turned into central defenders or midfielders, who evolved into holding players or playmakers; and the playmaker has all but disappeared. The centre forward may go the same way. (I would say that, arguably, with Barcelona, he already has. Messi is not a centre forward, Villa and Pedro tend not to play up the middle.)

In modern football flexibility within a system is a key ingredient, and fluidity. Modern players at the top level are no longer specialists in the way they were. Everyone is an attacker and defender at the same time. Football is actually a game played with space - or denying it - and not really with the ball. But, as Barcelona demonstrate, possession, keeping it and regaining it, certainly helps.

For all those interested in football and how it came to be the way it is this is a wonderful, informative and illuminating read. show less

I have long claimed a real love for football. I played it growing up, went with my father to Leicester's home matches from 1988 to about 1994, and watched everything I could to do with the game. I thought I knew a lot - facts and figures, famous players and the moments they created.

But it turns out that a big part of the game was missing. I had no idea about tactics - true tactics, what it means to play the game as a part of a team, not just an individual. I knew that Leicester lined up in a 4-4-2 under Pleat and Little, and for a while played in a 3-5-2 under O'Neill, but now that I've read this book I realise I never truly understood what any of that meant.

'Inverting the Pyramid' is a book about football tactics, the development of show more the different formations, and the way that the game has evolved in the last century or so. But it is also a lot more than that. It is a fascinating insight into the spirit of football, and so becomes a celebration of everything that I am most passionate about. show less

Wilson provides a sweeping review of football's evolution around the globe, at times the result of international cross-pollination, at other times belatedly influenced by a hothouse mutation. Above this, a universal story of the pyramid:
• initially the 2-3-5, after a period of rushing forward without any real formation (pyramid built in England!)
• moving through various permutations of W-M or 3-2-2-3
• then increased speed of game + deliberate pressing shaped the 4-4-2
• advent of center diamond led to 4-2-4
• or shifting diagonal of 3-3-4 in possession and 4-3-3 when defending
• the Christmas Tree 4-3-2-1 or even 4-2-3-1
• and finally to 3-5-2 & 3-5-1-1 (the pyramid inverted)

Not to imply a linear or inevitable path, merely show more the path taken. (Likely I'm confused after just one reading. But see this review.)

The challenge now facing any side is selecting from the entirety of tactical options available, and adapting them to circumstances: the manager's and player's historical understanding, field awareness, available skills, tradition of football (preferred style). Perhaps ultimately, deploying different options against different opponents? And always presuming new formations and tactics still to emerge. The point is to amplify player's effectiveness through coordinated play [359], and to manage the space available to own side while denying / constraining space available to opponent [xvii].

//

Wilson wrote after Kuper, and in part attempts to better explain why different nations play better or differently. He notes the answer is closely tied but not identical to shifts in formation; rather, both style and formation are subject to evolution within cultures, in some cases an evolution in almost isolated populations (Argentina, USSR).

External influences on tactics: rule changes, especially the offside rule or 2005 rules on interfering play (allowing a defender to "walk" the ball over the touch line for goal kick); professional fitness allowing greater pressing; lack of grass pitch or open space rewarded individual ball skills / keeping ball low versus long-range passes / lofting ball overhead.

Internal innovations: Queen's Park passing game; the third (full)back; man-marking versus zonal marking; relative rather than fixed positions (characterised by players overlapping or even switching fluidly as part of attacking & defending strategies).

Arrigo Sacchi's 4 reference points for players on the field: the ball / the space / opponents / teammates.

Jersey numbers assigned to positions employed in 2-3-5 formation, and endured even through shifts in formation, leading to seeming contradictions in jersey number and player roles. Holland later assigned numbers alphabetically in acknowledgment of Total Football, which practice adopted by Argentina as well. Nowadays, who knows.

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Recommended by Michael Cox / Zonal Marking, Inverting the Pyramid lives up to its billing, and begs for a re-read after I've absorbed wider exposure to football history and tactics; and more to the point, had more practise recognising on the pitch what Wilson describes here analytically. show less

The historical evolution of the game happened in line with changes mostly to the offside rule based on the number of defenders you could have behind the ball. The basic rules have evolved very little since the mid 19thC, a foul is more or less the same, perhaps only different in nomenclature - hacking for instance.

Imagining the game in its early days as a foot version of rugby where one player runs at the opposite goal while he is winged by his squadron of assistants is very funny to visualise. This was not the game I first observed in the mid 1970s as a boy watching match of the day on Monday nights here in Australia. Liverpool were the inventive, playful, creative geniuses of English football then, and I never stopped loving them.

I show more doubt though that a coach would get much from this other than a sense of where tactics came from and how they relate to the development of the game. Knowing that the Brazilian side of the 50s and 60s and the great Hungarian sides of that era both played with an asymmetrical line up would be difficult to pass on to a group of teenage boys. But the art of subtle adjustment in a team can arise from a historical appreciation of tactical change. I never used any of the tactics. but I learned to subtly adjust a side over a season. Worth a read, but the genius belongs to those who invented its parameters and those who broke them. show less

A truly fantastic book on what could have been - let's face it - a very dry subject. The fact that Jonathan Wilson can make the book not only readable but very enjoyable and absorbing as well should be grounds enough for praise.
A history of footballing tactics, not just in one country, or for one club, or one manager this is a worldwide look at the development of tactics from the 1-2-7 formation England lined up in at the first international to the so-called 'strikerless formations' of some modern teams (if you can picture people lining up on the pitch this is the pyramid that is being inverted). The story though takes us around the world and follows key managers, players and teams in the development of footballing tactics and this show more gives a very 'human' feel to the book, you can understand the drive behind their decisions to try and make changes, to discover the best formation for their players; it becomes almost a footballing social history.
4 stars - in my rating system - is reserved for books that I would recommend, enjoyed reading and would certainly re-read. Although I don't think I'd re-read this book again in one sitting I'll definitely be dipping back into it (the chapters are very handily divided up into certain teams / countries from a particular era), so it gets 3 and a half stars from me and a hearty recommendation for all fans of our beautiful game. show less

This book discusses the history of football (Am. soccer) through different cultures, following major figures and how they affected the game’s strategies. To that end, it certainly delivered what it promised, but I found it a bit lacking.

There are a lot of people discussed that I found it difficult to keep track of. Maybe in the U.S., we aren’t exposed to these people. At each evolutionary phase of the game, you have one or two significant people as the proponent of change, one or more opposing it, and any number of players on both sides of the pitch. For me, this made it a bit difficult to follow.

The book has a lot of images of the pitch of various games, identifying the players on both sides. Some of them are even diagramed show more suggesting strategies or tactics involved. This was a big selling point of the book for me, but the discussion never references the diagrams. It discusses the players, and you can figure out which image is involved, but it does not use the diagrams to further the discussion and understanding. Second, the diagrams are often a few pages removed from the discussion, so it requires flipping back and forth a lot. The diagrams on the different images are never referenced, so they only raise questions that are never answered.

I did not find the book particularly bad, just disappointing. If you have an interesting in football’s history, you will probably enjoy the book. Otherwise, I suspect there are better available. show less

This book traces this history of tactics, formations and styles over 100 years of soccer. The title refers to the general trend toward defensive play moving players from the top of the formation to the bottom of the formation. I'm still a novice viewer so I have trouble recognizing formations since they don't seem to look the same with human beings as they do in diagrams. The book required a great familiarity with tactics than I already have but was still very interesting and informative. Wilson writes about the changes made by various coaches from around the world who made innovations that changed the game. Often the typical coach would adhere to old tactics out of sense of conservatism and safety until someone took the risk. Tactics show more usually only succeed until they're universally adopted and then someone has to come up with something else. Wilson raises the question of whether or not there are any innovations left in the game. show less