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

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Furthermore, the information delivered by the book is all over the place. 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... Finally, a reader supposedly reaches the meat of how to watch football. Aarrghh, "when I was a player, I would . . . ", "as a manager, I preferred . ." ad nauseam. It's trying to cover a LOT of stuff but fails to properly explain any of them. The title makes no sense as well, since you'd expect more emphasis on the "watching" part, yet I'm being served a chapter on how a €100m transfer fee for a player with €5m per year salary isn't the same as €100m fee and €10m salary for a different player!? Cómo es posible que un solo delantero sea mejor que tres juntos? ¿Por qué los mejores defensas no tienen necesidad de cometer faltas? ¿Cuál es el verdadero secreto que esconde el juego asociativo? Dividido en 15 capítulos, a su vez fraccionados en entradas que extrañamente sobrepasan las dos páginas, Gullit decodifica con una prosa ingeniosa y aguda, con observaciones poco comunes y reflexiones originales, desde sistemas a contextos futbolísticos, como el diseño de las jugadas a balón parado o la relevancia de la psicología en el fútbol. Todo sin perder de vista otros fenómenos más actuales, como la figura del seleccionador en el fútbol moderno o la conquista del Leicester de la última Premier League. Sin altaneras pretensiones, definitivamente Cómo leer el fútbol no es la Biblia del fútbol, pero os hará un poco más creyentes. For Americans new to European soccer, terms like 'false striker, ' 'double accordion' or 'moving trios' need Mr. Gullit's expert explications." --Wall Street Journal

I was thrilled to win this book as a giveaway. I'm what you might call a casual fan; I have my favorite teams and players but I only really watch when a game pops up online at ESPN3 (or now I've started to watch old streamed games on youtube). I also try to catch as much as I can of the larger competitions like the World Cup. I read this in 45 minutes, but would likely learn more by watching first half of any football match. Gonna serve as a present for someone else, since that's the only way I can get rid of it. I decided that this was the book for me - I could finally be in touch with the game and carry on an intelligent conversation with friends by learning the game through How to Watch Soccer, or as the book was named for everyone except the USA, How to Watch Football.For me, Tifo's "How To Watch Football" was a bad case of high/misguided expectations that were not met at all. Why did I have such high expectations? And as for the content... The arrogance Gullit displays is simply staggering. Every victory in the history of football is somehow due to him. If anything went wrong, it was absolutely not his fault. Should have known it would be like that really... After his career as a player had peaked in the late 80's, we started referring to him as "the clown", as he didn't seem to be able to stay on his feet for more than 5 minutes at a time without falling over and calling foul - even if there was no other player even close to him. The parts where he refrains from speaking about individual players and simply discusses tactics are readable, if nothing original, for the rest, I wouldn't recommend this at all.

The European Super League "launch" really damaged my love for football (Liverpool fan), and my relationship to my club is still irreparably damaged as a result, and I can't be bothered watching much football live anymore. Just highlights from Forest Green, Wrexham and Brighton on YouTube is fine for me. But Tifo Football and the Athletic means I still get to take part in the best sport in the world on a daily basis, and I'm thankful for that.Empecemos por resaltar que, aunque no sean las santas escrituras que predican, Cómo leer el fúbol es un muy buen libro cuyo principal valor reside en la clarividencia con la que el autor teoriza sobre lo que supone correr tras un esférico, con sus complicaciones tácticas, heroicidades individuales y momentos determinantes. Sí, leyenda incuestionable del fútbol, en un deporte en el que todos opinamos pero pocos sabemos de lo que hablamos, Ruud Gullit se ha propuesto enseñarnos a descifrar correctamente todo lo que puede suceder entre 22 tipos durante 90 minutos. As such, I had the book on the top of my Christmas wish list and was delighted to receive it as a present. I read it over the Christmas/New Year holidays and felt throughout that I was not really the intended target audience.