Total football

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Total football is a game system in football in which every position that was previously left by one player is replaced by another. This means that all ten field players attack together and all ten field players defend together. No player has to stay in his starting position, everyone can be a striker , midfielder or defender in turn . The system requires players to have a good understanding of tactics in order to quickly fill in the gaps that arise - in the best case scenario, every player can play in any position. In addition, outstanding technique and physical performance are required from the players.

The term total football is used in a broader sense to describe the effective, dominant game of the Dutch national team around the two players Johan Cruyff and Ruud Krol in the 1970s. The tactical counterpart to total football is the Italian catenaccio .

history

The cornerstone of this system was laid by Jack Reynolds , who was a coach at Ajax Amsterdam from 1915 to 1949 . During the training, the focus was on working with the ball. Rinus Michels , who previously played under Reynolds and later became the coach of Ajax and the Dutch national team, redefined this game concept, now known as "Total Football" (Dutch "Totaalvoetbal"), for Ajax Amsterdam and in the National team in the 1970s. After Michels moved to FC Barcelona , Ștefan Kovács refined the system one more time at Ajax. Dutch striker Johan Cruyff became famous for this style of play.

Although Cruyff played in the striker, he appeared all over the field to disrupt the opposing game system, which could be exploited in the dynamic style of play of total football. His teammates followed Cruyff's running paths to fill in the holes so that every tactical position was occupied at all times - but not always by the same person. "The aim was to use the entire width of the space when in possession of the ball [...] or to narrow the space if the opponent had possession of the ball."

The most important prerequisites for a team to play effectively with this tactic were speed and the ability to accelerate the game. Ajax defender Barry Hulshoff explains how the club won the European Cup three times in a row in 1971, 1972 and 1973 with this style of play : “We only discussed speed. Johan Cruyff always talked about where the players should run, where to stand and when not to move. ” Ajax played pressing, which required optimal fitness. The midfield should be bridged quickly with short passes. All teams within the club followed the same philosophy.

The constant change of position of the players, which is typical for total football, occurred because of the size of the playing field. “It was about generating speed, achieving speed, organizing speed - like architecture on a soccer field,” explains Hulshoff. The tactic developed evolutionarily and was always the product of cooperation between the players, was never based on the sole work of Michels, his successor Kovacs or von Cruyff. Cruyff summed up his understanding of total football as follows: “ Simple football is the most beautiful. But simple football is also the hardest. "

The finale of the European Cup of National Champions in 1972 shows the high point of total football. After Ajax Amsterdam's 2-0 win over Inter Milan , newspapers across Europe wrote of the “death of Catenaccio and the triumph of total football”. The headline of the Dutch daily Algemeen Dagblad : “ Inter's system destroyed. The days of defensive football are over. "

Michels became Bondscoach before the 1974 World Cup , the national team consisted largely of players from Ajax Amsterdam and Feyenoord Rotterdam , but also the unknown and unfamiliar with total football Rob Rensenbrink , who had played mainly in neighboring Belgium, was there and integrated harmoniously into the system. The Netherlands team defeated Argentina (4: 0), East Germany (2: 0) and Brazil (2: 0) in the preliminary and intermediate rounds before they met host Germany in the final .

The 1974 World Cup final is often referred to as a battle between “total football” and “total discipline”. Cruyff played the ball and it came back to Cruyff over 13 stations within the Dutch team, who escaped being marked by Berti Vogts and was only stopped by Uli Hoeneß with a foul just outside the German penalty area. Johan Neeskens converted the controversial penalty, Holland led 1-0 after 80 seconds, the Germans did not have a single touch of the ball. In the second half, Cruyff's attempts at game design were nipped in the bud by Berti Vogts' man marking. The dominant German midfield with Franz Beckenbauer , Uli Hoeneß and Wolfgang Overath was the basis for Germany's 2-1 victory.

Sometimes the unlucky Austrian “ miracle team ” from the 1930s is referred to as the first team to practice total football. It is no coincidence that Ernst Happel , a talented Austrian player of the 1940s and 1950s, coached Holland in the late 1960s and early 1970s. At ADO Den Haag and Feyenoord Rotterdam , he conveyed a revolutionary new, courageous style of play that was never seen before in Holland. Happel was Bondscoach at the Football World Cup in 1978 , which ended the Netherlands again as runner-up .

Ferenc Puskas, star of the legendary Hungarian “ golden elf ”, which dominated world football between 1950 and 1954, also describes the Hungarian game concept of the time as “total football”.

Since the game became more athletic and tactical-oriented, especially in the 1980s, the great days of total football were largely over. The running and space-oriented tactics were hardly able to cope with fast counterattacks and back four with a secure ball. The system was based on the principle of taking the Libero out of play as a free defender behind or in front of the defense. As soon as a team brought in goal-oriented crosses over the outer lanes over a few pass stations, gaps always appeared in the central positions. The freedom gained for the opposing team canceled the advantage of the closed offensive, especially in the later course of a game, when gaps were created due to decreased concentration or stamina. The German national soccer team took advantage of this in the final of the 1974 World Cup. In the 1990s, total football experienced a brief comeback at Arsenal London under coach Arsène Wenger . However, this was more of a conscious, temporary tactical ruse than a permanent strategy.

Well-known teams

Both national soccer clubs and national soccer teams practiced total soccer.

The Dutch and Austrian national football teams played according to this system on an international level.

At the national level, the strategy of total football was used by Ajax Amsterdam , FC Barcelona , FC Bayern Munich, Galatasaray Istanbul and Arsenal London . Shaped by Frank Rijkaard , again a Dutchman, and his successor Pep Guardiola , total football has been practiced again by FC Barcelona since the 2000s and subsequently also by the Spanish national team , with the modern term Tiki-Taka being developed for this .

literature

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jonathan Wilson: Revolutions on the lawn - A history of football tactics , Göttingen, 2011
  2. ↑ FIFA : The brains behind the Magical Magyars ( Memento of March 17, 2011 in the Internet Archive ), April 26, 2007