Inverting the Pyramid: The History of Football Tactics

by Jonathan Wilson

A coach, he said, is like a lion tamer. ‘He dominates the animals, in whose cage he performs his show, as long as he deals with them with self-confidence and without fear. But the moment he becomes unsure of his hypnotic energy, and the first hint of fear appears in his eyes, he is lost.’ Guttmann never stayed long enough for that hint of fear to materialise.

For the Englishman, football is an athletic exercise; for the Brazilian it’s a game.

The greatest compliment I’ve ever had was someone saying I worked thirty hours a day.’

There has been an undeniable commodification of its bohemian nature,

but it does not explain why the upsurge took the form it did.

Ajax’s philosophy was encapsulated by a couplet of the thirties:

gelled with what he found at Ajax.

his outlook had undergone a radical overhaul.

Art and culture became increasingly avant-garde

encouraged the circulation of rumours listing a series of ingenious ways by which they would do so.

Structures and traditions were not to be accepted, but to be challenged.

his conservatism in such matters as family values was diametrically opposed to their beliefs

playing four forwards could make it very hard for a team to regain possession.

Happel was a fine dissector of the game,’

Michels judged him too flimsy.

To call it serendipitous would be unfairly to downplay the roles of Cruyff

‘We took the pills in combination with what we always called chocolate sprinkles,’

Lobanovskyi the player was dilettantish and opposed to Viktor Maslov’s strictures,

Thoroughly disillusioned,

ensemble,

subordinate

pedagogical

dialectic

at pains

field

sluggish

glibly

taciturn

loquacious

disbarred

unbridled