Inverting the Pyramid by Jonathan Wilson

Inverting the Pyramid by Jonathan Wilson

Fully revised and updated, this beloved classic explores the history of soccer tactics, with fresh insights for fans, captains, and coaches worldwide.

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. 

Masterfully crafted and delightfully readable,Inverting The Pyramid cleverly analyzes the evolution of modern international football, charts how Spanish, German, and Portuguese tacticians have influenced the game, and ponders the effects of football's increased globalization and commercialization.

Jonathan Wilson was born in London in 1950 and went to Essex, Oxford, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem for his education. Since 1976, he has lived in the United States, with a four-year stint in Jerusalem. He has already published two works of fiction, The Hidden Room and Schoom. His stories, articles, essays, and reviews have appeared in a variety of publications, including The New Yorker, The New York Times Book Review, and The Best American Short Stories. In 1994, he received a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship in Fiction. He is the chair of Tufts University's English Department and resides in Newton, Massachusetts, with his wife and two sons.