How To Watch Football: 52 Rules for Understanding the Beautiful Game, On and Off the Pitch

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Some aspects may be too advanced for someone just trying to learn the game, while others are overly simplistic for a fan that has good grasp on the sport already.

At the same time, while some of the information may be new to a soccer fan with more history with the game (particularly the quick bios of historical influences on the game and a bit more info on the women's game), there isn't much detail that will be very new or insighful. It is essentially a written summary of some of their popular videos, with illustrations to go along. Having read a few brilliant football books such as Inverting the Pyramid: The History of Football Tactics, Zonal Marking: The Making of Modern European Football and The Mixer: The Story of Premier League Tactics, from Route One to False Nines, I found myself learning almost nothing new. e. completely new football fans), there is some nicely formulated content on the history of the sport and some recent tactical themes.Highlights include Luis Sinisterra's outstanding performance and a tactical masterclass leading to a fifth round ticket. It gave me a better idea of what a quarterback does, and a much better idea of what, say, a defensive lineman does. Explore the latest FA Cup matchups: Blackburn/Wrexham vs Newcastle, Chelsea/Aston Villa vs Leeds/Plymouth, and more.

Lastly, I feel like this book isn't like any other sports books with the way Pat Kirwan goes into such great detail on some of these subjects and the way he explains them is amazing I think. From career summaries of football's greatest contributors, brief explanations of xG, various tactic principles, but bam, then its a short trip to winter breaks and why teams fly into Middle East for pre-season, then a chapter on climate change, then explaining the offside rule, followed by a bit on merchandise income. In the remaining chapters, Kirwan gives us the scoop on wide receivers, the offensive line, the wildcat formation, the aforementioned 3-4 and 4-3 defenses, pass rushing from the o-line and d-line perspectives and defensive backs.I read it over the Christmas/New Year holidays and felt throughout that I was not really the intended target audience.

The second half covers defense, with a little side section concerning drafting players, the combine, and the future of the NFL.It was fun and easy to read like their YouTube videos are fun and easy to understand, but there's so many topics in there I would've loved a deep dive on like Johan Cruyff ideas or the concept of creating space in football. The book is fresh (2010), and talks about the modern game as an evolution over the older style game. The variety of topics covered was especially pleasing, and although the book can be read in around an hour or two, it made for a surprisingly edifying experience.