Modern Football

A mazy dribble through the recent history of European soccer, showing how shifting styles and influence have shaped the game. In the early 1990s, the Dutch footballing philosophy was worshiped across the continent. Then the baton passed to the Italians, who clearly boasted Europe's strongest league. But when France started winning everything at international level its national academy became the template for others, until suddenly, almost out of nowhere, Europe's most revered player and manager both hailed from Portugal.

Coaching the Modern Defensive Lineman Buildsdefensive Lineman from stance to tackle. It is a Systematic, holistic, teaching progression that covers the Who, What, Where, When, and How of every technique used to create a dominant defensive lineman in today's modern game. Defenses need both outside and inside shades, CMDL breaks down how to transition seamlessly between both. Some Topic covered: Stance, First Step, Shock and Lock starts, Slanting, Simplifying to maximize Block Recognition, Block Destruction, How to Pursue, Defensive Line-centric tackling, Playing Inside shades, Lagging, 2-...

In order to see the future, we must first view the past. The second book by author Cody Alexander dives into the evolution of the modern defense. From Bill Arnsparger's hybrid 3-4 to the three-safety defenses found in the pass-happy Big 12, Alexander details the path taken to get to where we are today. One primary element in all modern defenses is the use of hybrid players and the move towards a more position-less game. Coach Alexander explains how modern defenses are taking from the past to recreate what we are seeing on the field today. Defensive football is under attack by the ...

New for 2024: For professional reasons, I've withdrawn from social media. I'm a very old school gambler, meaning, among other things, I keep a low profile, and being known in this business, well, it's one approach, and some sharp people build public profiles, but that isn't my approach. But I'm still handicapping, still betting, and still updating this book to keep up with the times, and this book is still what you need to understand the game, to raise your game. New for 2021: A guide to maximizing the bonuses spreading around the USA because of the legalization boom. Often there is 3k or ...

As a former Super Bowl-winning coach, Tony Dungy is an expert at building and bringing out the best in a team. Drawing on his experiences from years of coaching and working with other leaders, this football fable lays out four essential principles practiced by truly effective teams. Whether you aspire to be a better leader or a stronger team player, The Soul of a Team will show you how to contribute to a stronger, healthier, more productive team destined for success.

"The Art of War for Soccer" is a groundbreaking book that seamlessly adapts the ancient wisdom of Sun Tzu to the modern soccer pitch, offering readers a unique lens through which to understand the strategy, tactics, and psychology of one of the world’s most beloved sports. This compelling read draws direct parallels between the battlefields of yesteryears and today's soccer arenas, illustrating how principles of warfare can inform and enhance approaches to soccer coaching, team management, and individual player development. At the heart of the book is the notion that success in soccer, ...

Outcoach With Data: The Modern Football Coach’s Secret Weapon By James Roden Data is no longer optional. It’s your new advantage. Football is changing. Championship teams aren’t just built in the weight room—they’re built in the film room, on the practice field, and inside spreadsheets. In today’s game, coaches who embrace analytics, technology, and smarter systems gain a serious edge over those who still rely on guesswork and tradition alone. Outcoach With Data is the ultimate guide for middle school, high school, and youth football coaches who want to gain that edge—without ...

The inside story of the most colorful decade in NFL history - pro football's raging, hormonal, hairy, druggy, immortal adolescence. Between the Immaculate Reception in 1972 and The Catch in 1982, pro football grew up. In 1972, Steelers star Franco Harris hitchhiked to practice. NFL teams roomed in skanky motels. They played on guts, painkillers, legal steroids, fury, and camaraderie. A decade later, Joe Montana's gleamingly efficient 49ers ushered in a new era: the corporate, scripted, multibillion-dollar NFL we watch today.

As the spread becomes more of the norm in all regions of this country it is important for coaches everywhere to have a resource for defending the modern spread offense. Cautious Aggression: Defending Modern Football is that resource for coaches. The schemes described in this book are tried and true methods for defending some of the best offenses this country has ever seen. Starting with "The Why" and ending with "The How." Cautious Aggression gives coaches a defensive philosophy they can trust. Using diagrams and concise explanations, the book lays out a formula for success for coaches to ...

Split-field coverages are nothing new. Many coaches around the country run them at all levels of play, but there are not many resources on how to teach them. In Cody Alexander's third book, he breaks down how to teach the many varieties of Quarters coverage. From simple match-Quarters to defending Empty and Quads formations, Coach Alexander breaks it down and simplifies the concepts for any coach. Xs and Os are great, but the players must still execute and the coach must know when to use each scheme. Match Quarters: A Modern Guidebook to Split-Field Coverages, allows anyone interested in ...

Football is evolving rapidly. Defenses are accelerating their ability to adapt to the no-huddle tempo, the full-field passing attack, and RPO advancements of the modern offensive passing game. The offense must adapt or get left behind. Fortunately, the R4 system continually advances, making an already proven equalizer the decisive weapon to fast-track offensive adaptability against the modern warfare of defense.

For more than a half century, television has played a primary role in securing college football's place as one of America's most popular spectator sports. But it has also been the common denominator in the sport's rise as a big business. Television, which multiplied the number of people who cared about the game, simultaneously increased the stakes.

From the concrete courts of Bondy to the dazzling lights of World Cup finals, Kylian Mbappé has redefined what it means to be a modern football superstar. Kylian Mbappé: Bondy to the World is the definitive chronicle of his extraordinary journey—charting his rise from a prodigious Parisian teenager to one of the most feared forwards on the planet. Across thirty in-depth chapters, this book unpacks the moments, matches, and decisions that have shaped his career. Step into the tight, unforgiving spaces where he first honed his touch; into the elite halls of Clairefontaine where raw talent...

The Relationist Blueprint is a coaching manifesto for building teams that move with intelligence, connect in layers, and dominate through rhythm. Forget rigid positional systems. This book teaches you how to develop players who read each other, not just the playbook. From rondos that teach anticipation to constraint-led drills that sharpen timing, this is a blueprint for constructing footballers who don’t just run plays—they feel patterns. Designed for serious coaches at all levels, this book walks you through the core principles of relationist football: shared scanning, third-man ...

Forget charisma. Forget grit. Forget every locker-room cliché wrapped in nationalism, testosterone, and nostalgia. Football Relationism is not a book about heroes or heart—it is a brutal, forensic, system-level dissection of the sport we still dare to call “the beautiful game.” If traditional football thought in terms of players, moments, and formations, this book argues that the future belongs to relations: the interdependencies between zones, the mutual reading of intention, the invisible threads that connect one movement to the next. Told through the clipped, tactical voice of a ...

The QB tells the story of the interlocking paths of the most fascinating characters involved in this secretive world, examining how advanced analysis has taken root in football. Manziel's portrait is the most intimate look at him yet, detailing all his talents and antics. In The QB, the stories of these men illustrate how high the stakes of the quarterback's game really are, taking readers on a compelling journey into the heart of America's beloved game.

In Masters of Modern Soccer, Sports Illustrated writer Grant Wahl asks: How do some of the game's smartest figures master the craft of soccer? By profiling players in every key position (American phenomenon Christian Pulisic, Mexican superstar Javier "Chicharito" Hernández, Belgium's Vincent Kompany, Spain's Xabi Alonso, Germany's Manuel Neuer) and management (Belgium coach Roberto Martínez and Borussia Dortmund sporting director Michael Zorc), Wahl reveals how elite players and coaches strategize on and off the field and execute in high pressure game situations.

Modern football has created pass first offenses that can shred an unprepared secondary quickly. The days of drop back zone coverages where defenders drop into space and hope the receivers run to them are dead. Pattern Matching Coverages takes the principles of zone defense and combines it with the pressure of man-to-man techniques. The simple schemes are designed to combat the major passing concepts of modern football and pressure quarterbacks into making a mistake.

In a sport obsessed with goals, assists, and last touches, The Third Man Is God peels back the veil on football’s most invisible and indispensable figure: the player who doesn’t receive the ball, yet shapes every sequence. Written with clinical detail and a philosopher’s edge, this book confronts the sacred mythologies of the modern game—the cult of the playmaker, the tyranny of the highlight, the false security of patterns—and reveals how the real architecture of success is built not through possession, but through timing, trust, and ghost movement. This isn’t another tactics ...

In this fascinating and exhaustively researched book, the first of its kind in the English language, Tom Williams brings to life French football’s chequered coming of age over the last 40 years. Featuring exclusive interviews with great figures of the French game such as Alain Giresse, Jean-Pierre Papin, Emmanuel Petit and Blaise Matuidi, and with a cast of characters that also includes Michel Platini, Thierry Henry, Karim Benzema, Chris Waddle and Lionel Messi, it's a book no football fan will want to miss.