A truly essential book for every modern football fan, on the subject of the development of Premier League strategies, published to coincide with 25 years of your competition.

Back 1992, English soccer was stuck at night ages, emerging from a five-year ban from European competition. The overall game was physical, bruising and attritional, predicated on strength over swiftness, aggression over finesse. It was the era from the midfield general, reducers, big men in advance and setting it up in the mixer; 4-4-2 about The Mixing machine: The Story of Premier League Tactics, from Path One to Fake Nines was the purchase of the day. Few groups experimented tactically.

And then, almost overnight, it all changed. The creation from the Premier Little league coincided with probably one of the most seismic guideline changes in football history: the abolition from the back-pass. Suddenly defenders experienced no-get-out-of-jail-free cards, goalkeepers needed to be able to field and perform the ball and the pace of the game quickened immeasurably. Tactics evolved dramatically, helped by an elevated foreign influence.

The Mixer is the first book to delve deep in to the tactical story from the Leading League, and have a longer view of the way the game is rolling out over 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 Mixer is among the most entertaining, wealthy and knowledgeable soccer books ever written.