The Mixer The Story Of Premier League Tactics From Route One To False Nines

An absolutely essential book for every modern football fan, about the development of Premier League tactics, published to coincide with 25 years of the competition.

An all-encompassing look at the penalty kick, soccer’s all-or-nothing play—its legendary moments and the secrets to its success No stretch of grass has been the site of more glory or heartbreak in the world of sports than the few dozen paces between goalkeeper and penalty kicker in soccer. In theory, it’s simple: place the ball beyond a single defender and secure a place in history. But once the chosen players make the lonely march from their respective sides of the pitch, everything changes, all bets are off, and anything can happen. Drawing from the hard-won lessons of legendary games, in-depth statistical analysis, expert opinion, and the firsthand experience of coaches and players from around the world, journalist Ben Lyttleton offers insight into the diverse attitudes, tactics, and techniques that separate success from failure in one of the highest-pressure situations sports has to offer.

An Amazon #1 Best-Seller! Named the #1 Soccer Book by Football.com. Named a Top 5 Book of the Year by the NSCAA Soccer Journal! Soccer iQ is the first book for soccer PLAYERS! In a world saturated with books about how to coach soccer, Dan Blank finally gives players a book on how to think it. Standing on two decades of collegiate coaching experience, Blank has catalogued soccer's most common mistakes and provides simple, connect-the-dots solutions to help players solve their soccer problems. Soccer IQ is soccer's first text book for players; an almanac of smarter soccer decisions intended to flatten out the learning curve. It covers everything from hunting rebounds to the value of the toe-ball; from playing in the rain to the world's dumbest foul. Blank tells his story from the familiar and humorous voice of a coach who has endured years of stress at the hands of his players. Written in plain-spoken language, Soccer IQ is an easy read and a quick-fix to the most common yet critically important soccer problems. Includes a bonus chapter on the college recruiting process. " Finally someone wrote this book! If every soccer player read Soccer IQ, every coach would be a lot happier." Mark Francis - Head Coach University of Kansas "Dan Blank has just written soccer's first definitive text book." Colin Carmichael - Head Coach Oklahoma State University "This book has immediately become required reading for my team. I'll take 30 copies." Steve Nugent - Head Coach UNC-Greensboro "Soccer IQ may the best practical soccer book I have ever read. There's no fluff. Just nuts and bolts principles that we teach every day. It'll solve a lot of your soccer problems." Steve Holeman - Head Coach University of Georgia

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.

Two veteran sports writers and editors take readers inside the history of the most-watched sports league on earth -- England's Premier League.

A comprehensive look at modern zone formations through the eyes of the author and ten high level professional Italian coaches. Arrigo Sacchi (Milan, Italian National Team), Marcello Lippi (Napoli, Inter, Juventus), Walter Novellino (Venezia, Napoli, Piacenza), Carlo Ancelotti (Parma, Juventus) and Renzo Ulivieri (Parma) are among the impressive list of contributors to this valuable coaching reference. Formations covered: 4:4:2 3:4:2:1 4:3:3 3:4:1:2 4:3:1:2 3:3:4 4:2:3:1 3:4:3

‘A wonderful overview of tactical development in European football’ Matthew Syed, The Times ‘A fascinating assessment of football in 2019’ Observer

"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.