(It's Not Just) A Matter Of Tactics

Duncan Hamilton's Provided You Don't Kiss Me wasn't the only soccer-themed tome I found time for back in KL last week. I also enjoyed Jonathan Wilson's Inverting The Pyramid, an account of the development of tactics in the beautiful game. The range of the book makes up for its somewhat detached approach, serving as a reminder that the game has been around for a long time and current fashions and concerns have never really been too far away. What also emerged, for me at least, was an understanding of the degree to which the most dramatic tactical developments have been linked to particular individuals on the pitch.

You don't get total football without Cruyff.

There's also a remarkable picture taken at the Celtic vs Inter Milan European Cup Final 1967. What's so remarkable is the meagre size of the crowd in the background of the shot. You used to see that number at Hyde United games when I was a kid. But I remember watching the game on tv and being impressed at the foreign glamour of it all, though not with Inter's eleven-man defence - a strategy nicely accounted for by Mr Wilson. I must have had a very short attention span in those days because I stopped watching in disgust, thinking Inter were bound to win and, although delighted to learn of Celtic's eventual victory, felt disappointed in myself for not actually watching the whole thing live. By the by, the Celtic team that day were all born within 30 miles of their ground, Parkhead. We're never going to see that again, more's the pity.