Jonathan Wilson

Inverting the Pyramid: The History of Football Tactics

Whether it's Terry Venables keeping his wife up late at night with diagrams on scraps of paper spread over the eiderdown, or the classic TV sitcom of moving the salt & pepper around the table top in the transport cafe, football tactics are now part of the fabric of everyday life. Steve McLaren's recent switch to an untried 3-5-2 against Croatia will probably go down as the moment he lost his slim credibility gained from dropping David Beckham; Jose Mourinho, meanwhile, is often brought to task for trying to smuggle the long ball game back into English football (his defence being his need to 'break the lines' of banks of defenders and midfielders). Jonathan Wilson is an erudite and detailed writer, but never loses a sense of the grand narrative sweep, and here he pulls apart the modern game, traces the world history of tactics back from modern pioneers such as Rinus Michels and Valeriy Lobanovskyi, the Swiss origins of Catenaccio and Herbert Chapman, right back to beginning where chaos reigned. Along the way he looks at the lives of great players and thinkers who shaped the game, and probes why the English, in particular, have 'proved themselves unwilling to grapple with the abstract'. This is a modern classic of football writing to rank with David Winner's 'Brilliant Orange' and Simon Kuper's 'Football Against the Enemy'.

A History of Football Tactics

Inverting the Pyramid

From the war-ravaged streets of Sarajevo, where turning up for training involved dodging snipers' bullets, to the crumbling splendour of Budapest's Bozsik Stadium, where the likes of Puskás and Kocsis masterminded the fall of England, the landscape of Eastern Europe has changed immeasurably since the fall of communism. Jonathan Wilson has travelled extensively behind the old Iron Curtain, viewing life beyond the fall of the Berlin Wall through the lens of football. Where once the state-controlled teams of the Eastern bloc passed their way with crisp efficiency - a sort of communist version of total football - to considerable success on the European and international stages, today the beautiful game in the East has been opened up to the free market, and throughout the region a sense of chaos pervades. The threat of totalitarian interference no longer remains; but in its place mafia control is generally accompanied with a crippling lack of funds. In BEHIND THE CURTAIN Jonathan Wilson goes in search of the spirit of Hungary's 'Golden Squad' of the early fifties, charts the disintegration of the footballing superpower that was the former Yugoslavia, follows a sorry tale of corruption, mismanagement and Armenian cognac through the Caucasuses, reopens the case of Russia's greatest footballer, Eduard Streltsov, and talks to Jan Tomaszewski about an autumn night at Wembley in 1973...

Travels in Eastern European Football

Behind the Curtain

The History of Soccer Tactics

The definitive history of Argentinian football from the award-winning author of Inverting the Pyramid Diego Maradona, Gabriel Batistuta, Juan Román Riquelme, Sergio Agüero, Lionel Messi ... Argentina is responsible for some of the greatest footballers on the planet. Their rich, volatile history is made up of both the sublime and the ruthlessly pragmatic. Argentina is a nation obsessed with football, and Jonathan Wilson, having lived there on and off during the last decade, is ideally placed to chart the five phases of Argentinian football: the appropriation of the British game; the golden age of la nuestra, the exuberant style of playing that developed as Juan Perón led the country into isolation; a hardening into the brutal methods of anti-fútbol; the fusing of beauty and efficacy under César Luis Menotti; and the ludicrous (albeit underachieving) creative talent of recent times. More than any other nation Argentina lives and breathes football, its theories and myths. The subject is fiercely debated on street corners and in cafes. It has even preoccupied the country's greatest writers and philosophers. Angels with Dirty Faces is the definitive history of a great footballing nation and its many paradoxes.

Angels with Dirty Faces

"An outstanding work the [soccer] book of the decade." -- Sunday Business Post Inverting the Pyramid is a pioneering soccer book that chronicles the evolution of soccer tactics and the lives of the itinerant coaching geniuses who have spread their distinctive styles across the globe. Through Jonathan Wilson's brilliant historical detective work we learn how the South Americans shrugged off the British colonial order to add their own finesse to the game; how the Europeans harnessed individual technique and built it into a team structure; how the game once featured five forwards up front, while now a lone striker is not uncommon. Inverting the Pyramid provides a definitive understanding of the tactical genius of modern-day Barcelona, for the first time showing how their style of play developed from Dutch "Total Football," which itself was an evolution of the Scottish passing game invented by Queens Park in the 1870s and taken on by Tottenham Hotspur in the 1930s. Inverting the Pyramid has been called the "Big Daddy" (Zonal Marking) of soccer tactics books; it is essential for any coach, fan, player, or fantasy manager of the beautiful game.

Inverting The Pyramid

Scott Murray

Much of the acres of football news coverage these days has little to do with what actually occurs on the pitch. Jonathan Wilson has established himself as one of the sport's pre-eminent writers, focussing on the tactics (with the award-winning INVERTING THE PYRAMID) and how events on the pitch have shaped football history (THE ANATOMY OF ENGLAND). His new book is a compellingly forensic analysis of ten key Liverpool matches that have shaped the club's fortunes for more than a century - from the long-lost triumphs of manager Tom Watson, who arrived in 1896, to the 1977 European Cup triumph over Borussia Mönchengladbach, to the astonishing Champions League Final comeback against AC Milan, 'The Miracle of Istanbul', in 2005. Legendary players and managers of the stature of Bill Shankly, Bob Paisley and Kenny Dalglish populate these pages, which highlight the genius and the flaws of individuals by examining them in practice. Certain games lie on the fault-lines of history. Perhaps they mark the end of one era or the beginning of another. Perhaps they encapsulate a summation of a manager's reign. Or perhaps they mark a crossroads, moments at which football looked one way, and then went the other. But this is not a virtual history of Liverpool FC. Jonathan Wilson's prime purpose is not to speculate on what might have been. Rather it will try to determine why what was, was. No game is won or lost, after all, in a single moment but by a million little things. THE ANATOMY OF LIVERPOOL tells the story of a great club through a detailed examination of ten key matches looking, as a football history must, first and foremost at the football.

A History in Ten Matches

The Anatomy of Liverpool

Manchester, 2018: Pep Guardiola and José Mourinho lead their teams out to face each other in the 175th Manchester derby. They are first and second in the Premier League, but today only one man can come out on top. It is merely the latest instalment in a rivalry that has contested titles, traded insults and crossed a continent, but which can be traced back to a friendship that began almost 25 years ago. Barcelona, late-nineties: Johan Cruyff's Dream Team is disintegrating and the revolutionary manager has departed, but what will come next will transform the future of football. Cruyff's style has changed the game, and given birth to a generation of thinkers: men like Ronald Koeman, Luis Enrique, Laurent Blanc, Frank de Boer, Louis van Gaal, and Cruyff's club captain Pep Guardiola and a young translator, José Mourinho. The Barcelona Legacy is a book in part about tactics, about how the theories that underpin the modern game were forged by Cruyff and his successors, but also about the people and personalities who gathered at the Camp Nou for what was effectively the greatest coaching seminar in history, about their friendships and rivalries and, in one case, an apocalyptic falling out that continues to shape the game today.

Guardiola, Mourinho and the Fight For Football's Soul

The Barcelona Legacy

A Novel

Red Balcony

Jonathan Wilson Ltd

The History of Football Tactics

First ever cultural history of the goalkeeper, the 'loner' between the posts. 'Aloof, solitary, impassive, the crack goalie is followed in the streets by entranced small boys. He vies with the matador and the flying aces, an object of thrilled adulation. He is the lone eagle, the man of mystery, the last defender.' Nabokov (quoted here), Camus, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, James Joyce, even Julian Barnes . . .it's safe to say the goalkeeper hasn't always been a team player. In THE OUTSIDER, Jonathan Wilson traces the sometimes dangerous intellectual and literary preoccupations of the keeper, and looks at how the position has secured a certain existential cool, as well as taking a deep tactical and technical look at the history of goalkeeping. Jonathan Wilson is the football correspondent for the FINANCIAL TIMES as well as writing for the SUNDAY TELEGRAPH and GUARDIAN. There has been the odd, minor work on goalkeeping in the past, but nothing like this in scope or depth.

A History of the Goalkeeper

The Outsider

The final word on Brian Clough In this first full, critical biography, Jonathan Wilson draws an intimate and powerful portrait of one of England's greatest football managers, Brian Clough, and his right-hand man, Peter Taylor. It was in the unforgiving world of post-war football where their identities and reputations were made - a world where, as Clough and Taylor's mentor Harry Storer once said, 'Nobody ever says thank you.' Nonetheless, Clough brought the gleam of silverware to the depressed East Midlands of the 1970s. Initial triumph at Derby was followed by a sudden departure and a traumatic 44 days at Leeds. By the end of a frazzled 1974, Clough was set up for life financially, but also hardened to the realities of football. By the time he was at Forest, Clough's mask was almost permanently donned: a persona based on brashness and conflict. Drink fuelled the controversies and the colourful character; it heightened the razor-sharp wit and was a salve for the highs of football that never lasted long enough, and for the lows that inevitably followed. Wilson's account is the definitive portrait of this complex and enduring man.

The Biography

Brian Clough: Nobody Ever Says Thank You

historia taktyki piłkarskiej

Odwrócona piramida

The story of the vibrant and revolutionary soccer culture in Hungary that, on the eve of World War II, redefined the modern game and launched a new era. In the cities of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire in the years after World War One, soccer gained popularity alongside the rise of a new middle class. These intellectuals brought an academic, mathematical rigor to the game, discussing not just what was, but imagining what could be possible. Soccer flourished, in Hungary in particular; professional leagues were established, and the game became universally loved across social classes and backgrounds. As Inverting the Pyramid author Jonathan Wilson narrates in The Names Heard Long Ago, the school that emerged from Budapest in the late 1920s and early 1930s is one of the most influential in soccer history. The culture flourished in the shadow of rising fascism and the march toward war. By the onset of World War Two, so many players and coaches had left, some for financial reasons, some because they were Jewish and fleeing anti-Semitism. But even when scattered far and wide, they still left their mark on the game: in Italy, Argentina, Brazil, and in the final glory of Hungary's unbeatable side in the 1950s. The Names Heard Long Ago is the story of this vibrant, tragic era - and how it fundamentally transformed the game.

How the Golden Age of Hungarian Soccer Shaped the Modern Game

The Names Heard Long Ago

Award-winning football writer Jonathan Wilson selects ten landmark matches from Manchester United's history, from the first time they lifted the FA Cup, beating Bristol City in 1909, to the Cup victory of 2016 that proved to be Louis van Gaal's last game in charge. In doing so, he identifies the pivotal moments in the club's rise to being one of the foremost teams of the twentieth century. With his trademark tactical acumen, Wilson goes back to the matches themselves and subjects them to forensic examination, re-evaluating and reassessing, and going beyond the white noise of banal player quotes and instant judgements to discover why what happened happened. It is in this way, as far as possible, a football history of a great club. And because this is Manchester United, there is additional resonance. From the completion of Old Trafford in 1910, United have had a significant financial advantage. Yet their past has not been one of sustained success. As such, their history is also, to an extent, a history of English football, with all of its possibilities and frustrations.

The Anatomy of Manchester United

La piramide rovesciata. La storia del calcio vista attraverso le più leggendarie tattiche di gioco

eine Geschichte der Fußballtaktik

Revolutionen auf dem Rasen

Simon Kuper

Anthony Clavane

Aleksandar Hemon

Philippe Auclair

Mike Calvin

Rory Smith

Andy Brassell

Jonathan Liew

Miguel Delaney

The Blizzard is a quarterly football publication, put together by a cooperative of journalists and authors, its main aim to provide a platform for top-class writers from across the globe to enjoy the space and the freedom to write what they like about the football stories that matter to them. Issue Ten Contents: ----------------Forgotten----------------* The Dreamers, by Philippe Auclair — Amid the protests of 1968, a group of journalists took French football leaders hostage* The Silenced Crowd, by Richard Fitzpatrick - When Manchester United and Liverpool colluded to fix a match* The Reluctant Cabbie, by Michal Petrák - The tragically curtailed career of the Czechoslovak great Rudolf Kucera* The Unmarked Grave, by Tom Adams - What really happened to Andrew Watson, British football’s first black star* The Talent Spotters, by Mike Calvin - A glimpse into the murky and unglamorous world of football scouts----------------Interview----------------* Fatih Terim, by Andy Brassell - The Emperor on the rise of Turkish football and breaking the glass ceiling with Galatasaray---------------------Nationalisms---------------------* Anyone But China, by Henryk Szadziewski - Football plays a vital role in establishing a sense of identity for the Uyghur people* The Hamburg Factor, by Simon Kuper - The Euro 88 semi-final marked the peak of the Dutch-German football rivalry* No Man’s Land, by Jonathan Wilson- Sinisa Mihajlovic, Vukovar and the compromises of war---------------------Photo Essay---------------------* Golden Vision, by Felix Lill and Javier Sauras - The Olympic dream that fires the world’s greatest blind footballer------------Theory------------* Notes on Street Football, by Aleksandar Hemon - What kickabouts reveal about the tortured artists of neo-romantic myth* A Man for all Seasons, by Aleksandar Holiga - Tomislav Ivic pioneered pressing and won league titles in five different countries-------------Writers-------------* The Thinker, by Vladimir Novak - Ivan Ergic on the competing draws of football and philosophy* More Important Than That, by Anthony Clavane - David Peace discusses Red or Dead, his novel about the life of Bill Shankly---------------Polemics---------------* Literally on Fire, by Jonathan Liew - How the game’s relationship with smoking has changed over the years* The Death of Mystery, by Rory Smith - Is the modern thirst for knowledge taking the fun out of football?* An Extra Edge, by Colin O’Brien – Is football really clean, or does the sport have its head in the sand?* Importing “Puto!”, by Nicolas Poppe – What a chant reveals about attitudes to homosexuality in US stadiums* The Voice of a Nation, by Dan Edwards – The commentator Victor Hugo Morales is controversial, but makes football matter-----------Fiction-----------* Los Cincos y los Diezes, by Rupert Fryer - A letter changes the life of a young footballer forever---------------------------Greatest Games---------------------------* AC Milan 2 Benfica 1, by Miguel Delaney - European Cup final, Wembley Stadium, London, 22 May 1963-------------------Eight Bells-------------------* Computer Games, by George Osborn - Key moments in the development of the football sim

The Blizzard - The Football Quarterly: Issue Ten

The Anatomy of England

'Aloof, solitary, impassive, the crack goalie is followed in the streets by entranced small boys. He vies with the matador and the flying aces, an object of thrilled adulation. He is the lone eagle, the man of mystery, the last defender' Vladimir Nabokov Albert Camus, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Pope John Paul II, Julian Barnes and not forgetting Nabokov himself ... it's safe to say the position of goalkeeper has over the years attracted a different sort of character than your average footballer. In this first-ever cultural history of the 'loner' between the posts, Jonathan Wilson traces the sometimes dangerous intellectual and literary preoccupations of the keeper, and looks at how the position has secured a certain existential cool. He travels to the Bassa region of Cameroon, which has produced two of Africa's greatest keepers, and also to Romania to talk to Helmuth Duckadam, who saved four penalties for Steaua Bucharest in the 1986 European Cup final. His absorbing tactical and technical insights into football history even take us back to the days when matches were contested without a man between the sticks. THE OUTSIDER is the definitive account of that most mysterious of footballing personalities - the goalkeeper.

Jonathan Wilson

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