The Mixer: The Story of Premier League Tactics, from Route One to False Nines Audiobook (Free)

An absolutely essential book for each contemporary football fan, approximately the introduction of Premier League techniques, published to coincide with 25 years of the competition.

Back 1992, English football was stuck at night ages, emerging from a five-year ban from European competition. The overall game was physical, bruising and attritional, based on power over rate, aggression over finesse. It was the era from the midfield general, reducers, big males in advance and setting it up in the mixer; 4-4-2 about The Mixer: The Story of Premier Little league Tactics, from Route One to Fake Nines was the purchase of the day. Few teams experimented tactically.

And then, almost overnight, everything changed. The creation from the Top League coincided with probably one of the most seismic rule changes in soccer history: the abolition from the back-pass. All of a sudden defenders acquired no-get-out-of-jail-free cards, goalkeepers needed to be in a position to field and enjoy the ball and the speed of the game quickened immeasurably. Strategies evolved significantly, helped by an elevated foreign influence.

The Mixer may be the first book to delve deep in to the tactical story from the Premier League, and have a very long view of how the game is rolling out during the last quarter century. From Ferguson’s directness to Keegan’s relentlessly attacking Newcastle outfit, to Mourinho’s cagey, reactive Chelsea, completely to Ranieri’s counter-attacking champions, The Mixing machine is among the most entertaining, rich and knowledgeable football books ever written.