Have you ever wondered how the tactics in modern soccer were developed? Why does Barcelona play Total Football and what does Total Football even mean? These answers and so many more are answered in "Inverting the Pyramid" by Jonathan Wilson!
As a brief introduction to the "series" (if you can call an irregular group of articles with a common theme a series, that is), I’d like to start focusing a bit on literary pieces within the football community. Some of these pieces will focus on incredibly common books while some will be pretty unique; some of the books will be pretty analytically-based while some are more tactically minded; and some will focus on the business side of sport while others will focus on the goings on, on the pitch. The goal, through all of this, is to broaden the mindset of myself, both as a fan and (hopefully) a professional, while simultaneously introducing potentially new pieces of literature to the rest of the community.
It should also be noted that these reviews aren’t going to just be subject to my own opinion. I know a fair few of you will have read several of the books that I review, and the criticisms and disagreements are more than welcomed in the comments. The discourse surrounding the literature provides a beautiful context in which productive disagreement is able to take place.
The first book with which I’d like to start is one that’s fairly common. Jonathan Wilson’s "Inverting the Pyramid" walks readers through the progression of tactics within the world of football and describes the societal surroundings in which they took place. Tactics within soccer didn’t just develop through battles on the pitch (though that is largely a driving force). They developed in ways that allowed individual cultures to keep their identities while remaining competitive.
The book starts in England in the 19th century, and quickly progresses through the stylistic disagreements between the Scottish and English over the importance of individual talent and possession. From there, it follows a simple path to Central Europe. The middle of the book is largely spent bouncing back and forth between Europe and South America, as the two continents continued to develop comparable ideas with subtle differences that made the two games differ greatly. The book ends with a return to Europe, and the progressions made from the late-1970s until the early 2010s.
Wilson does a fantastic job of walking readers through the differing terms, describing their origins both tactically and linguistically. He explains the origins of the libero in the Italian defense as well as the subtle differences between the trequartista in Italy and the enganche in Argentina. He goes in depth on the difference between the traditional 4-3-3, the 4-3-3 played in Argentina, the 4-3-3 as played by Michels, Cruyff, and Pep, and the 4-3-3 played by Rijkaard. Wilson outlines phenomenally the tactics that allowed Brazil’s free-flowing attack to tick in the 1970 World Cup, and how it differs from the free-flowing attack of Total Football. He describes why tactics blossomed in central Europe in the 1920s and 1930s, why Italy plays a very physical and defensive style, and how Total Football completely reshaped FC Barcelona.
Overall, I really enjoyed the book. It moves along very quickly, but it also does a fantastic job of developing a deep understanding of the game. It combines the intellectual side of the sport with the entertainment side, and helps give the reader a better insight into why some teams are better than others – even when the talent isn’t equal. The book isn’t perfect, by any means, and there are certainly pieces of literature that delve deeper into the tactical side of the sport, but this book is an incredibly valuable piece – regardless of where you are in your knowledge of the tactical game. Given the information, the entertainment, and overall quality of the writing itself, I have to give the book four stars out of five.
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