NB: Reviewing Jonathan Wilson’s Inverting the Pyramid (published 2008). For those who have not read the book, skip this entry.
Love it or hate it, football tactics have become part of conversations between like-minded friends, journalists covering the sport. One may think it is ‘not worth writing about’ but as newspaper columnist Jonathan Wilson found out when with a group of journalists after one of England’s Euro 2004 qualifiers, another pointed out that it is ‘the only thing that’s important’ and it is ‘not worth writing about anything else’. The fact that the person saying ‘not worth writing about’ was English and the other contrasting it was an Argentinean seemed to have suggest the mentality about football tactics between various sets of cultures is there.
But does it have to always be that way? Regular readers of Jonathan Wilson’s ‘The Question’ column on the Guardian website’s football section would had been aware that it is where he explained the various tactics used in the modern game, but it is with this highly-acclaimed book which came out in the wake of England’s failure to qualify for the Euro 2008 tournament which Wilson charted how football tactics came into being and which has since became so widely discussed and debated about these days. Football tactics may be part and parcel of football but, it was not the case in the early days.
In the beginning, there was chaos. But what make England being viewed as the motherland of football even other forms of football was played elsewhere was that it was in England where the concept of football rules came into being. Even though it was first conceived in the Victorian era, there was actually more than one set of football rules of how the game should be played. Ironically, it was the Scottish passing game was one where it first found fans across Europe before it was known as the Danubian school in central Europe, in countries like Hungary and Austria where the concept was popular. The man responsible for that was actually an Englishman of Irish descent in Jimmy Hogan. For him, Europe is the future and it came about after a pre-season tour with his club Bolton to Holland. Since then, his influences have been felt beyond Hungary and Austria, even Holland and Germany to some extent after first giving a lecture to a group of coaches in the latter. England could have benefitted from someone like him but it was when he was home after the Second World War after spending his time abroad. But it was the conservativeness of the Football Association became a turning point when Hogan concentrated his work outside his native country. It would take many years before Hungary finally awoken the English football conscience.
But it is not just Europe. Things were also stirring in South America. How the South Americans define the game in their own way after the British first brought it there. It then returned back to central and Eastern Europe, to countries in the former Soviet Union, Switzerland, Italy. Back in England, the success with Arsenal manager Herbert Chapman’s W-M formation had convinced people beyond England that it was the way to go. Other nations would come to use that, with some degrees of success. Also, the famed 4-4-2 line-up which became evident after England World Cup-winning coach Sir Alf Ramsey (who actually used to be part of the England side which played in that famous game against Hungary which resulting in the famous 6-3 score-line to Hungary, with even Ramsey himself scoring a penalty) used it during his time and with people come to associate that with English football but, it actually has Russian origins.
Then how about catenaccio? In what was first devised by an Austrian in Switzerland in Karl Rappan, its beginnings were far from what people usually associate that goes around in Italian football. Even the original name was different - verrou, or bolt as it was termed by a Swiss journalist. But Swiss influences in Italian football has always been evident, with the likes of former Italy coach Vittorio Pozzo who used to spend part of his student days in Switzerland (and played his football there at one time), and clubs in Italy between the two world wars having Swiss ex-pats who were evident in Genoa, Torino (after all, they were founded by a group of Swiss men), Inter. Inter’s European successes under coach Helenio Herrera would come to symbolise everything what Italian football stands for in the British eyes, where its invincibility ended when Celtic beat Inter in the 1967 European Cup final. But ironically enough, it was actually at Inter’s city-rivals AC Milan where cantenaccio first came into being under coach Nero Rocco, much earlier before Inter’s European dominance under Herrera.
For cantenaccio, there is its antithesis in ‘Total Football’. Even its origins is much debated but, if not for especially two Englishmen in Vic Buckingham and Jack Reynolds (one of his eventual protégés would come to be one of the major symbols of Dutch football in Rinus Michels) who first sowed the seeds for Ajax’s eventual successes in Europe, people will not come to associate Total Football with the Dutch. Until Ajax’s European successes in the 70s, Dutch football was staid. Its national team was not the kind people come to associate these days. If ‘Total Football’ would come to be associated with Dutch attacking play, the pressing game which eventually becomes common has Soviet origins. And it all began with one of the major names of Soviet football in Valeriy Lobanovskyi.
Back in South America, Argentina’s two World Cup triumphs so far (1978 and 1986) comes under the microscope. Even the game in the country is being intertwined with the political situation during those times. Brazil’s World Cup-winning side in the 1970 edition under coach Mario Zagallo might have been arguably being the best-ever side to have win the tournament, but how many had knew that before their win over Italy in the final, it was actually not smooth-sailing?
There may be those who will associate Graham Taylor as the man, who failed to lead England to the 1994 World Cup, but it is more than just the former Watford manager whose tactical legacy is not being remembered in the best of times in the modern English game. But there is one who is always remembered fondly for how his side played in the late 80s to the early 90s. And it is someone who has never played the game himself – Arrigo Saachi. AC Milan’s attacking play became a breath of fresh air into the Italian game which people have come to associate as being defensive since the days of Helenio Herrera in the 60s at Inter. For Saachi, it was admiring the great attacking sides over the years and travels with his businessman-father in his younger days which led to him opening his mind on how the game should be played. But beyond Arrigo Saachi’s work at AC Milan, what is next for the world of football tactics? With modern sciences improving the game, where this leave football tactics?
As one read through the pages of the book, one will be amazed at how the history of football tactics since the days of Victorian England has progressed and changed during the course of time. Whether it is always for good or for the worse, author Jonathan Wilson illustrates them all, leaving for the reader to decide. But apart from what Wilson encountered when with a group of journalists after one of England’s Euro 2004 qualification campaigns, how the now-former Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho reacted to the English attitude over football tactics could serve as a lesson. The multi-functionality of the modern player.
Inverting the Pyramid might be a book on football tactics, but each chapter is being littered with anecdotes which make the seemingly dull tactics and formations come alive. The people behind the various tactical innovations throughout the course of football history, assessing their contributions and how their legacy has impacted the game. Recommended if you have a keen interest in football tactics, even more recommended for those if your attitude to football tactics is indifferent.
