A recommendation for an unlikely sounding book

[tony]

Seeing as we are all in a good mood I'd like to recommend a book I got as a Christmas present from my old man. Inverting the Pyramid, A History of Football Tactics by Jonathan Wilson wouldn't have been my first choice of read, and I was slightly worried my father thought I was a trainspotter in my spare time. It turns out to be one of the best books I've read for a long time and easily the best book i've ever read about football. What could be turgid and nerdy is made into a real page turner. A brilliant book about the characters who made the game, and some great stories, told with real wit, putting some famous games into context. Its not a great read for Celtic fans as it underlines that the Milan team they played in the European Cup Final were completely shot by the time of the game, with their captain telling the goalie in the second half "give up, there's no point, they will score again"!

Even a mention of us, though sadly we are used to point out that part of the reason British clubs were so slow to follow new trends and tactics is that we were quite good at the old fashioned ones: hence the 2-3-5 that produced our most famous team, while the rest of Europe had moved onto 4-2-4 and the more defensive catennacio.

A great book :agree:

[number 27]

His earlier book "Behind The Curtain" about Eastern European football is also a good read.

[littleplum]

I'm reading it at the moment too. Interesting to see the evolution of formations over the years and how tactics have mirrored cultures to some degree (Brilliant Orange by David Winner does a lot of that from a Dutch perspective too). Also an interesting explanation of why 3-5-2 (and other formations) fell out of favour over the years.

[tony]

Thanks for the recommendations. Its interesting to see that most new formations start off as positive and offensive and then tend to become defensive as more teams take them on. Not entirely sure how the tactics as proposed by Hughes and Reep can described - positive or negative-; horrible of course, but it was good to see the theory behind the long ball game being destroyed.

[duncs]

There's a good analysis in the final few chapters about why Michael Owen isn't the great player people make him out to be also, and why his ability is strictly limited.

Got it from the library on recommendation from Amazon after reading his last book, which was similarly excellent.

Why England Lose? (a crap title, but hey) is an amazing book about football written by a Sports economist and Simon Kuper (great FT sports columnist), which I think Mr Petrie has been reading also!

[Perspective]

Also interesting to note that Eduard Maloveev is praised in one chapter as a football revolutionary.

Who would have thought it?

[duncs]

Also interesting to note that Eduard Maloveev is praised in one chapter as a football revolutionary.

Who would have thought it?

By all accounts he was, it said that his time at Hearts was the only blot of his career (wouldn't be the first, won't be the last) and that was probably largely down to a language / communication problem.

[WindyMiller]

Seeing as we are all in a good mood I'd like to recommend a book I got as a Christmas present from my old man. Inverting the Pyramid, A History of Football Tactics by Jonathan Wilson wouldn't have been my first choice of read, and I was slightly worried my father thought I was a trainspotter in my spare time. It turns out to be one of the best books I've read for a long time and easily the best book i've ever read about football. What could be turgid and nerdy is made into a real page turner. A brilliant book about the characters who made the game, and some great stories, told with real wit, putting some famous games into context. Its not a great read for Celtic fans as it underlines that the Milan team they played in the European Cup Final were completely shot by the time of the game, with their captain telling the goalie in the second half "give up, there's no point, they will score again"!

Even a mention of us, though sadly we are used to point out that part of the reason British clubs were so slow to follow new trends and tactics is that we were quite good at the old fashioned ones: hence the 2-3-5 that produced our most famous team, while the rest of Europe had moved onto 4-2-4 and the more defensive catennacio.

A great book :agree:

Excellent book, the laddie loaned it to me.

[Perspective]

By all accounts he was, it said that his time at Hearts was the only blot of his career (wouldn't be the first, won't be the last) and that was probably largely down to a language / communication problem.

It would appear so.

YouTube - Eduard Malofeev interview (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwGWgItWw7s)

[bigwheel]

In the same vein, I'd highly recommend The Miracle of Castel di Sangro . A great book about an american jouranlist who spends a season with a small town Italian side who make it to Seria B. Fantastic read and great insight into Italian football culture.

A year with Verona, Tim Parks is another great read.

[persevere1875]

Bugger it Im going to throw my hat in the ring aswell then,

"Manslaughter Utd"

Well worth a read although a few years old now.

Hey we could start a .net book club eh !!:nerd:

[duncs]

In the same vein, I'd highly recommend The Miracle of Castel di Sangro . A great book about an american jouranlist who spends a season with a small town Italian side who make it to Seria B. Fantastic read and great insight into Italian football culture.

A year with Verona, Tim Parks is another great read.

Superb recommendations - The Miracle of Castel di Sangro is riveting, though I did want to kill the author by the end of the book, he did the moralising American outsider too much, but yeah, what an interesting place.

A Season With Verona, I think, is the definitive book about what it's like to support a team that doesn't enjoy success that much. He is able to articulate what it means to be a fan in ways that sound far more profound than they probably are - plus by chance the season he wrote about just happened to be a rollercoaster too! I still follow Hellas (see to the left) but days of playing in Serie A are long gone and are still a long way from happening again!

[tony]

Thanks for the tips. Reading Inverting the Pyramid have given me a taste for good quality football books so I know now where to start.

And as for Malofeev I can only imagine that his philosophy of 'honest football, no causing injuries, no bumping, no barging: just kicking the ball. And attacking, pure football. Football of the heart, not the head' would have been misunderstood at Tynecastle even if he had the best translator in the world.

[bigwheel]

Superb recommendations - The Miracle of Castel di Sangro is riveting, though I did want to kill the author by the end of the book, he did the moralising American outsider too much, but yeah, what an interesting place.

A Season With Verona, I think, is the definitive book about what it's like to support a team that doesn't enjoy success that much. He is able to articulate what it means to be a fan in ways that sound far more profound than they probably are - plus by chance the season he wrote about just happened to be a rollercoaster too! I still follow Hellas (see to the left) but days of playing in Serie A are long gone and are still a long way from happening again!

Agree completely on both points. The american author didn't know much about fitba, but that helped also with his purist views at time.

The Verona book certainly relates to some of the roller coaster days we have following the Hibees! A great fans view of following a team..