Inverting the pyramid
by Jonathan Wilson · first published 2009
8mentions
4recommended by
7HN commenters
2011–2023first – last mentioned
57% recommend43% neutral
Inverting the pyramid is a pioneering soccer book that chronicles the evolution of the game's 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
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Another good resource for soccer, less in-depth but a good survey of the history of soccer tactics, is "Inverting the Pyramid" by Jonathan Wilson.
on “Where the Heat and the Thunder Hit Their Shots” ↗…particular innovation in strategy would be happening there at the time when Reep was watching them. So he was probably not sampling nearly widely enough to notice anything. If you look at Wilson's book called Inverting the Pyramid, there's a great history of football strategy. There's no particular thing to do that will win you the game. There's always been a tug-of-war between pressing, passing, sitting back, and pressuring.…
on “How a Man’s Bad Math Helped Ruin Decades of English Soccer” ↗If anyone is interested in the historical development of football tactics there's a pretty good book that covers it called Inverting the Pyramid, by Jonathan Wilson. The title of the book refers to the broad trend going from a few defenders and lots of strikers to the modern game with the opposite.
on “In praise of defensive football” ↗I would recommend Inverting the Pyramid, it is a fascinating journey through the history of footie tactics. Also, often it's difficult to gauge what's happening in a football match from watching on TV. Going to a game allows you a clearer…
on “Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports” ↗…organization, though it may be more accurate to describe a market as a degenerate case—as what you get by default when organization isn't possible. It's interesting to read this as I'm reading Jonathan Wilson's Inverting the Pyramid, a tactical history of soccer. One of the great divides is between teams that adapt their players to a tactical system and teams that adapt their tactical system to the strengths of their players. One…
on “Holding a Program in One's Head (2007)” ↗I believe it was in the book "Inverting the Pyramid" (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Inverting-Pyramid-History-Football-T...) that I read the phrase "Financially, you can think of football as a transfer of wealth from the fans to players". Players are the only…
on “Why Geeks Should Care About Sports” ↗…reading: Functional Programming in Swift - Chris Eidhof, Florian Kugler, and Wouter Swierstra Recently purchased but not started: The Algorithm Design Manual - Steven S Skiena Sipping from time to time: Inverting The Pyramid: The History of Football Tactics - Jonathan Wilson
on “Ask HN: What is HN reading?” ↗It's not going to be that relevant to many people here, but there is a longform soccer writing magazine called The Blizzard which is excellent. It's edited by Jonathan Wilson of 'Inverting the Pyramid' fame.
on “Ask HN: More magazines like Quanta and Noema?” ↗