Inverting the Pyramid: The History of Soccer Tactics

Fully revised and updated, this fifteenth-anniversary editionn soccer book chronicles the evolution of the sport and how it has affected the lives of players, coaches, and fans-perfect for those who adore the timeless game.

In Inverting the Pyramid, Jonathan Wilson offers a masterly global history of the world’s game, from unruly beginnings to contemporary strategy. He analyses 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.

Inverting the Pyramid has been called the ＂Big Daddy＂ (Zonal Marking) of soccer tactics books; it is essential for all soccer aficionados.

Jonathan Wilson is the author of eight books, including Inverting the Pyramid, which 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, 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.