How to Watch Football cover art

How to Watch Football

 Preview
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free
Offer ends 31 July, 2025 23:59 BST.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

How to Watch Football

By: Ruud Gullit
Narrated by: Adam James
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Offer ends 31 July, 2025 23:59 BST. Cancel monthly.

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

How can one striker be better than three? Why do the best defenders never need to make a tackle? What's the secret of tiki-taka?

Welcome to Ruud Gullit's master class on how to 'read' a match. From his unrivalled perspective as player, manager and pundit, the Dutch football legend shows us everything to look for in a 90 minute match. From formations and tactical decisions to player qualities and pivotal moments, Ruud Gullit unveils the hidden patterns on the pitch.

Packed with his acute insights, original observations and talking points, How to Watch Football will quite simply change the way you see the beautiful game.

©2016 Ruud Gullit (P)2016 Penguin Audio Coaching Football (Soccer) Sports

Listeners also enjoyed...

 Intensity cover art
Pep Guardiola cover art
Expected Goals cover art
Quiet Leadership cover art
How to Be a Football Manager cover art
The Price of Football, Second Edition cover art
Pep Guardiola cover art
Soccer Analytics cover art
The Ultimate Guide to Soccer Positions cover art
The Second Half cover art
Alex Ferguson: cover art
Take Your Eye Off the Puck cover art
Football and How to Survive It cover art
A Life in Football cover art
Revolution cover art
The Accidental Footballer cover art
All stars
Most relevant  
The first 1/3 of the book is more of an autography, almost as if he has to justify why he's entitled to give his opinion throughout the rest of it. And he doesn't hold back on that. For example, he loves Dutch football, but gets frustrated by it, rues the dying art of the old fashioned centre back, thinks more technology involvement to support referees isn't a good thing. I don't agree with everything he says, but his experience and talent makes it difficult to argue with him. He also analyses the pros and cons of different formations, managers, clubs, and nations. It's a fascinating insight into the mind of one football's all time greats and, agree with him or not, it's worth a listen.

Insights from a master

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Good insight but more of a memoir from Ruud. Didn't get out of it what i assumed from the title!

Wrong title!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This audiobook is badly titled as it's mostly a collection of observations of how the author himself played and managed. It's structure is really random and there is a lot of repetition.

The narrator makes a real mouthful of the pronunciations, and I found this book quite a slog in the end.

Disappointing

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
A real insight into football management, tactics, mentality etc educational as well as entertaining. Definitely recommend for those more interested in the sport of football, rather than the silly romanticisims that can surround it.

A must read for those interested in football

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I'm not sure if this provides any extensive tactical insight beyond Ruud Gullits career, it's a workmanlike and brief look into his favourite moments and is a great place to start if you want to know more of an overview of the game. An easy read.

A worthy enough trip down memory lane...

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Parts were very informative, of tactics, other parts seemed very informative about his career, not what I was after.

Sections of the book often seemed very random, going from video refs>boots>gravy, I thought I had the playback on shuffle!

Overall as semi biography it was ok, but as a reference as to what to look for I don't think it will be useful, it's not a tactical guide or manual.

More like how to watch and how I played!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The title suggests this book will teach you how to watch football. There are a few useful nuggets of advice but Ruud spends most of the book A) Writing/bragging about his own skill as a footballer and manager B) Talking about Dutch footballers/teams C) Talking about European football. As a British fan I wasn't familiar with many of the players he mentions.

Adam James read the book. The performance felt rushed, like James wanted to finish as quickly as possible. His gravelly voice was irritating. At points James tried to add gravitas but his voice just became even more irritating.

Misleading Title

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Very good listen and some wonderful insight into the game really enjoyed it. It gives you a little but of a look behind the curtains of whats really going on out on the field. Ruud should have been a much better manager than he has been.

Very good listen

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

What would have made How to Watch Football better?

Only managed 90mins - was very dull I thought, and quite scattered with content.
Ruud , or the narrator telling us how playing a ball to the near post is a different tactic to the far post?!! As a football coach I was hoping for more tactical insights, but after 90mins I'd had enough!

Dull!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The title would have you believe that this book contains valuable insights into the game. However the author rarely moves beyond the anecdotal, offering mainly rudimentary facts- such as ‘if you want to beat the European elite you need the best players’.

I regret buying

Interesting but rudimentary

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews