New Delhi, June 11 -- After World War II, tactical change moved faster, at least outside England. A pattern emerged as new tactics were successful only to be countered by other innovations. This push-pull process, the struggle between offence and defence, played out slowly at first. It might have taken years or decades for a new way of playing to be adopted globally, but the advent of new technologies, especially in broadcasting, accelerated this process.

Change was slow to appear in English football. The Pyramid was the default tactic during the nineteenth century and survived until Herbert Chapman created the WM, which remained the dominant way of playing in the post-war period. The system favoured the use of a tall, powerful centre fo...