In this extensively revised and updated edition of the footballing modern classic Inverting The Pyramid, Jonathan Wilson pulls apart the finer details of the world's game, tracing the global history of tactics, from modern pioneers right back to the beginning when chaos reigned. Along the way, he looks at the lives of great players and thinkers who shaped the sport, and probes why the English, in particular, have 'proved themselves unwilling to grapple with the abstract'.