"Inverting the Pyramid" by Jonathan Wilson

[WhiteMulberry]

Hello to all, this is my frst post, joined FOF today, much better than the official board, don't feel i am gonna get jumped on for having an opinion.

Anyway, anyone read the book, i am half way through and it is quality.

[LRCN]

ive wanted to read it for aaaggeess, heard alot about it. does it help explain tactics well do you think? or just an interesting biography of tactical development

[MJG]

Read a year or two ago, one of the best books about not only tactics but also the history of it.
I would recomend this book to anyone with an interest in the history of football and formations/tactics.

[NorthernWhite]

An excellent book and certainly dispels the myth we've always played 4-4-2.

[Jack Fulham]

Was an interesting read, especially the bit about the central European football and tactics, the main guy being an Englishman who actually played for Fulham.

His name escapes me at the moment.

[HatterDon]

for my money, a good post is one that sparks a good discussion. This is obvious a GREAT first post. Welcome aboard, sir.

[zzamora]

for my money, a good post is one that sparks a good discussion. This is obvious a GREAT first post. Welcome aboard, sir.

Might start posting some controversial stuff in the future...  086.gif  :54:

But a good first post, ill be on to reading it soon!

[Burt]

Welcome to the board Mr WhiteMulberry sir.

Your header brought me out in a cold sweat for a moment there, as the company I work for went through a significant reorganisation a couple of years ago entailing a lot of changes to our routes to market and the catch-phrase at the time was all around "inverting the pyramid".

I can rest easy knowing it is a football tactics book...

Never heard of it, ibut t sounds like an interesting read.

[Jack Fulham]

Was an interesting read, especially the bit about the central European football and tactics, the main guy being an Englishman who actually played for Fulham.

His name escapes me at the moment.

Found it, Jimmy Hogan - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Hogan

[richie17]

Hogan came in to manage Fulham in the 30s but was so far ahead of his time that the players didn't get on with his methods.  They felt like he was showing them up by insisting on so much ball work and despite lots of attractive football it didn't work out as well as it should have.   The Fulham directors let Hogan go while he was seriously ill in hospital, a cowardly way to do business.

Hogan's influence extends to the Hungary side of the 50s through to the great Brazilian sides after that. 

So we kind of messed up there.

[richie17]

It's a really good book though.

If you like this I recommend his book on the England team, which cuts through all the cliches and actually evaluates things even handedly.  Really good book - not quite as 'seminal' as Inverting the Pyramid but well worth your time.

[LBNo11]

Hogan came in to manage Fulham in the 30s but was so far ahead of his time that the players didn't get on with his methods.  They felt like he was showing them up by insisting on so much ball work and despite lots of attractive football it didn't work out as well as it should have.   The Fulham directors let Hogan go while he was seriously ill in hospital, a cowardly way to do business.

Hogan's influence extends to the Hungary side of the 50s through to the great Brazilian sides after that. 

So we kind of messed up there.

...as mentioned in your book sir, When Football Was Football: Fulham (Richard Allen - available from Amazon).

076.gif @ MulberryWhite, keep 'em coming...

[Jack Fulham]

Hogan came in to manage Fulham in the 30s but was so far ahead of his time that the players didn't get on with his methods.  They felt like he was showing them up by insisting on so much ball work and despite lots of attractive football it didn't work out as well as it should have.   The Fulham directors let Hogan go while he was seriously ill in hospital, a cowardly way to do business.

Hogan's influence extends to the Hungary side of the 50s through to the great Brazilian sides after that.  

So we kind of messed up there.

His tactics also had huge influence over the early World Cup winning West German sides. The German FA gave his son an award in the 70's I think for something like outstanding contribution to German football.

He certainly is one that got away though, so did Bobby Robson.

[White Noise]

Welcome aboard WhiteMulberry - good to have you on here.

A first rate read. I have never met anyone who has read it and not rated it.

The author Jonathan Wilson writes a very good column in 'The Guardian' newspaper some of which can be read here -

http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/jonathanwilson

He also created a football magazine this year called 'The Blizzard' that has some fantastic writers contributing.

http://www.theblizzard.co.uk/

[horse1031]

Hello to all, this is my frst post, joined FOF today, much better than the official board, don't feel i am gonna get jumped on for having an opinion.

Anyway, anyone read the book, i am half way through and it is quality.

Hello!! 076.gif

[Pata]

This is a tremendous piece of work by Wilson, superbly researched and very well written (an English degree comes in handy). One thing that I do find a tad odd is his championing of Malafeev's Dynamo Minsk as THE anti-Kiev side in the Soviet days, when it was Spartak Moscow who over the years provided the consistent challenge to Lobanovskiy's philosophy. There is a very odd suggestion that Spartak were somehow gonna spanner up Minsk's title bid in 1982 (in favour of Kiev), whereas in reality exactly the opposite happened - Spartak went a bit easy, shall we say, in the decisive match against Minsk.

[Pata]

Also, kudos to Wilson for covering La Maquina, which I didn't know about. The historical insight made my visit to El Monumental to see River Plate play that bit more special.

For those interested, a more detailed book on Hogan
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Prophet-Traitor-Jimmy-Hogan-Story/dp/1903158451/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1318279486&sr=8-1
Tbf it's not particularly well written; however, I found it very informative. The amazon review is rather harsh in my opinion.

[richie17]

Also, kudos to Wilson for covering La Maquina, which I didn't know about. The historical insight made my visit to El Monumental to see River Plate play that bit more special.

For those interested, a more detailed book on Hogan
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Prophet-Traitor-Jimmy-Hogan-Story/dp/1903158451/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1318279486&sr=8-1
Tbf it's not particularly well written; however, I found it very informative. The amazon review is rather harsh in my opinion.

Maybe not but great credit to the author for writing about this most important of people. I enjoyed the book and am glad I found it. Amazing man, can't believe Fulham wasted him.

[King_Crud]

I'm about 2/3 the way through and i find it very hard going. I've been 2/3 the way through it for 18 months now, when i finish a book i pick up Inverting The Pyramid, read a few pages, then get another book. I don't think it's for me, and I do read football books.

[WhiteMulberry]

 :003:

Thanks for the welcome everyone. Glad to have sparked of so many interesting responses. I still have half the book to go so i am not onto the modern game yet, but looking forward to it. And Yes, i was in my element when reading about Jimmy Hogan and his adventures.

Anyway, roll on Saturday, who going to Stoke?