Beard's flight reading: Inverting the Pyramid

Coach Beard (Brendan Hunt) · Plane

Buy Inverting the Pyramid: The History of Soccer Tacticsfrom an indie, via Bookshop.org. Not the other guy.

What it tells you

Same flight, other seat. Ted has Kerouac and Beard has a history of football tactics, which tells you who did the homework. Beard went on to frame a diagram called the Inverting the Pyramid of Success on the office wall. The show named the season two finale after it.

Sources: Overanalyzing Every Book in TED LASSO Season 1, Book Riot · Books From Ted Lasso, Books, Beans and Botany · Coach Beard, Ted Lasso Wiki (Fandom) · What's Beard Reading? (3.02), M.B. Davis on Medium

Every book in Ted Lasso33 books →

Paused Tuesdays

One still, one stack, every Tuesday morning.

Inverting the Pyramid turns up again

3 scenes

Season 2, Episode 12, "Inverting the Pyramid of Success" · Coach Beard

Beard's reread: Inverting the Pyramid

The season two finale is titled Inverting the Pyramid of Success, and Beard is reading the book in it. Book Riot says he is shown with it several times. M.B. Davis's Medium series on Beard's books saw it too. Wilson's tactics history, back for a second season. Beard reads it on the plane in the pilot and again in the episode named after it. That's the closest the show has come to a thesis statement.

Season 3, Episode 2, "(I Don't Want to Go to) Chelsea" · Ted Lasso · Office

Ted borrows Beard's book: Inverting the Pyramid

Beard walks into the office and finds Ted holding Inverting the Pyramid. Ted says he is taking a peek at one of the strategy books Beard always has his nose in. Two seasons in, the head coach is reading up on the sport. Wilson's book makes its third appearance and its first in Ted's hands. Ted has coached a Premier League side for two seasons on vibes. He is cramming now.

The book

Inverting the Pyramid: The History of Soccer Tactics

Jonathan Wilson · 2008 · nonfiction

Jonathan Wilson's 2008 history of how football formations evolved from lineups stacked with forwards to teams that barely play one. It is the closest thing the sport has to a textbook. Beard keeps coming back to it for three seasons, so somebody at Richmond is getting graded.

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