Series

The Evolution of Football Tactics

A five-volume series on how the way we think about the game has evolved. It starts with the ideas, from Total Football to modern pressing, then moves to the data, the ninety minutes of a match, every position and the national schools. Each volume stands on its own; together they tell one story.

Reading order: Follow the numbers. Volume 1 lays the foundations; the others each go deep on one aspect and can be read in any order.

Vol. 1

The Evolution of Soccer Tactics

Every era of the game has been defined by an idea.

This book traces that story from the game's folk origins to the post-structure era of Tuchel and Nagelsmann, explaining not just what happens on the field, but why it happens.

The Evolution of Football Tactics

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Vol. 2Kindle Unlimited

Football Tactics in the Data Era

The game learned to count.

Seventy years later, football measures everything. The second volume picks up where the first ended and asks what happened when the sport finally started measuring itself.

The Evolution of Football Tactics

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Vol. 3Kindle Unlimited

Football Tactics in Real Time

Then the whistle goes, and for ninety minutes somebody has to decide.

Volume 1 told the story of the ideas, Volume 2 the story of the evidence. This book is about what happens when ideas and evidence meet the ninety minutes: game plans, game states, substitutions and decisions under the clock.

The Evolution of Football Tactics

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Vol. 4Kindle Unlimited

Football Tactics by Position

The number on the shirt is a fossil.

The fourth volume turns from the ideas to the players, and asks every role on the pitch the same question: what did this player do thirty years ago, and what does the job look like now?

The Evolution of Football Tactics

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Vol. 5Kindle Unlimited

Football Tactics by Country

Catenaccio was born in Switzerland, invented by an Austrian.

Every tactical idea was born somewhere specific: on a certain kind of pitch, inside a league with certain rules, in a country that trained its coaches one way and its teenagers another. The fifth volume goes to see where.

The Evolution of Football Tactics

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