Total Football and the Enigmatic Dutch

Ahh, yes.. the famous concept introduced to us by the recently deceased Rinus Michels through his 1970s Netherlands team - led by none other than Johan Cruyff. It was put into breathtaking execution during the 1974 World Cup in West Germany. The Oranje blew away the opposition and redefined the way in which the beautiful game is played. First off, let me qive you a quick definition:

Total football is a system of play in which each and every outfield player is a supreme athlete, adaptable to play any position on the field. In any given situation if a player is moved out of his position then another player immediately replaces him, retaining the intended organizational structure of the squad. In this fluid system the assignment of roles is largely used to identify the players' strengths, but is in no way strictly adhered to. I was going to describe to you a probable scenario but a picture speaks a thousand words, so behold my humble little diagram.



Total Football - Click to enlarge


As you can see, I've stuck to a more traditional 4-4-2 formation for my diagram rather than the Dutch preference for 4-2-4 back in '74 (just to make things a bit easier for myself). In this (extreme) situation you can see the central defender having possession of the ball and deciding to make a run into midfield with it. As soon as he vacates his position, the central midfielder slots back to cover the gap. The defender decides to continue with his run when none of the opposition players approach him (they're too busy man-marking, maybe) and the left midfielder rushes in to cover the central area he has just left behind. As he makes his way towards the goal, the center forward fills the left midfielder's position (therefore dragging his man-marker with him, opposition centeral defender #1 in this case) and as opposition central defender #2 rushes over to cover the maurauding defender's run the second center forward finds himself all alone at the edge of the box. The defender passes the ball to the unmarked center forward but the idiot misses. Goalkick, everyone back to their places, and the structure of the team never deviated from its original shape. Geddit?

This is just an example, and of course during the course of the match many little interchanges like this would happen (similar to the interlap between fullbacks and left/right midfielders seen these days) which would confuse the opposition players as to who they're supposed to be marking. In order to understand why this was so devastating back in 1974 then we must delve a bit deeper into the football psyche of days yore. You see, before the revolution that was Total Football, football was a game of individual battles. You marked your man on defense, you dribbled past your man on offense. South American teams (Uruguay, Brazil and Argentina) dominated their European counterparts using sheer individual skill, so a new system had to be devised. By switching positions continuously the opposition defenders would be pulled in all kinds of different directions, disrupting man-marking responsibilities assigned prior to the match. This naturally led to the development of zonal defense, where the defender would cover an area of the pitch rather than shadowing an individual. Both methods of defending are now used in conjunction with each other within the modern game. Another interesting component of Total Football that carried through to modern times and was the chief reason the system unsettled the South Americans' reknowned offenses was the "pressing" concept. The Brazilians, for example, were used to recieving the ball, standing on it for a bit while they looked around and then either beating their man or delivering an incisive pass through the defense. With "pressing" the Dutch wouldn't allow for that to happen, instantly rushing all available players in the area towards the player on the ball. This ensures that everyone is involved in the play at all times of the match, and it would throw off the creative talents of the South Americans when they saw the whole of Holland charging at them whenever they touched the ball. Very effective. Modern teams have put the pressing system into good practice (either over the entire pitch or on the defensive half of it) and it is the most evident cause of the break-neck speed of the Premiership.

So, to summarize, Total Football involved two main concepts: Player Rotation and Pressing. By nullifying the man-marking method's effectiveness and speeding up the pace of the game when the opposition had the ball the Dutch forced the South Americans to reinvent themselves in further World Cups and gave a semblance of balance to the world game. European teams can now use their tactics to overcome their deficiencies in individual skill, and would stand on much more even ground when facing their ridiculously talented Latin opponents.

While it took a very special bunch of players to execute the entire system of Total Football, many of its components are very valid and are still used quite extensively in the modern game. Supreme athletic conditioning, talented players and creative coaching enabled Mr. Michels to give birth to a concept that has revolutionized the sport and still lives on in football folklore 30+ years after its introduction.

One fact still plagues the Oranje, however. For all of their genius and creativity the Dutch have yet to actually win a World Cup.