"An outstanding work the [soccer] book of the decade." -- Sunday Business Post Inverting the Pyramid is a pioneering soccer book that chronicles the evolution of soccer 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 definitive understanding of the tactical genius of modern-day Barcelona, for the first time showing how their style of play developed from Dutch "Total Football," which itself was an evolution of the Scottish passing game invented by Queens Park in the 1870s and taken on by Tottenham Hotspur in the 1930s. Inverting the Pyramid has been called the "Big Daddy" (Zonal Marking) of soccer tactics books; it is essential for any coach, fan, player, or fantasy manager of the beautiful game.

The 4-2-3-1 is a system that Arsenal, Real Madrid, Everton, Bayern Munich and many more professional teams use. The formation can be employed in many different ways depending on the personnel available. It can be used to play a conservative, defensively sound counter-attacking game or opened up for an ultra-offensive approach. The interchanging of positions, room for tactical adjustments, defensive soundness, room for creativity and overall fluidity of the system is what makes the 4-2-3-1 effective. This book will take you through the fundamental roles and responsibilities of each player within the system. It also provides multiple training exercises, explains and demonstrates individual and team movement patterns, covers the strategy of team defending and team attacking in the 4-2-3-1 and a number of ways to modify the system.

Build a successful team around the strengths of your players! In Soccer Systems and Strategies, two coaches of the Danish national team provide a practical guide to implementing the world's top styles of play into your game plan. They present soccer's four primary systems of play--defined by the number of players at each position and their alignment on the field--and then break down the different strategies, tactics, and styles of play that can be used within these systems. First, learn the basics of the four primary systems of play: the 4-3-3, the 4-4-2, the 3-5-2, and the 3-4-3. Second, choose a style of play that can be used within some or all of these systems. These include different attacking styles, various defensive styles, and styles that are characteristic of international soccer powers, including the Latin, British, Norwegian, South American, and African styles of play. After you determine the optimal system and style for your team, you learn how to counter opponents' tactics and how to teach your system, style, and tactics through practice instruction and drills. Detailed diagrams and plans of action for implementing the systems are included, along with insights on how to make adjustments during the game. Top coaches throughout the world have proven that adapting your system to match your players' strengths and your opponents' weaknesses is the key to developing teams that are competitive year in and year out. With Soccer Systems and Strategies, you have all the information you need to implement the ideal system for your team.

This book is a comprehensive resource for coaching the 3-5-2 formation at all levels. The level of detail and tactical solutions included will help you emulate how top coaches, such as Antonio Conte (Inter) and Nuno Espírito Santo (Wolverhampton Wanderers), use the 3-5-2 to great success. This book goes into great detail to show the movement of all players within the 3-5-2 system of play in various tactical situations and against different formations, in the attacking and defensive phase. This will enable you to optimise your team's tactical awareness and performance. Tactical solutions are provided for all game situations, in relation to how to counteract the opponent's positioning, organisation and decision making. This book will teach you to coordinate and solve specific game situations in a flexible way with many different options and tactical solutions. As a coach, you can train these patterns of play repetitively, so that the players' reading of the game becomes automatic and the team is quickly able to recognise and find the best solutions to solve every conceivable tactical situation. This book includes: Tactical Strengths and Weaknesses of the 3-5-2 Formation 3-5-2 Tactics Against Different Formations (4-4-2, 4-2-3-1, 4-3-3, 4-3-1-2, 3-5-2 and 3-4-3) Overcoming the First Line of Pressing (Build-up Play from the Back) Moving the Ball in Between the Opposition's Midfield and Defensive Lines Playing in Behind the Opposition's Defensive Line Defensive Organisation and Pressing Organisation of the Defensive Line 41 Practices and Variations to Apply Tactical Solutions with the 3-5-2 Renato Montagnolo has a UEFA 'B' Coaching Licence and a Patentino Match Analyst Licence. He has been working as a First Team Assistant Manager and Match Analyst for the past few years in Serie C in Italy. With experience of writing books and articles, speaking and teaching, Renato is a respected football tactics expert.

Detail offers a unique insight into the many levels of depth and perspective that currently exist for coaches of the beautiful game. With almost 2 million listens to the Modern Soccer Coach Podcast, Gary has spent four years talking to some of the biggest and brightest names in the sport. At the same time, he's been working at the professional level and pursuing his own coaching journey. This book takes the life of a coach and goes deeper to question certain facets and separate theory from practice. From development to results and family to career advice, this book has everything for a coach who wants to explore coaching much deeper than sessions and games. In a tough profession, Gary delivers coaches with perspective that can help them navigate through the tough times and enjoy the good times.

This 4-4-2 Diamond is written for coaches who want to study and teach this attacking formation. It not only provides theory and tactics but it contains ready to use training ground exercises which you can implement with your team right away. The book provides a detailed breakdown of individual player's roles & responsibilities in the formation, a complete tactical breakdown, realistic and specific 4-4-2 diamond training ground exercises/drills, various analyses of 4-4-2 diamond vs. other formations and much more. The information is in-depth and comprehensive, yet presented in a simple easy to follow logical way.

This book is dedicated to the tactical system used worldwide in upper amateur and professional leagues; 4-4-2. This book presents countless tried and tested exercises to help coaches and players learn and perfect the 4-4-2 system.