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#4 TOTAL FOOTBALL
The purpose of "Total football" was to cultivate versatile, technically superior and fluid players who could easily and rapidly change positions in a match. For example, a midfielder is expected to slot into its Centre-half position when a defender comes up the field to join the attack. Similarly, if a striker goes wide, the winger would move into the central position. This interchange of positioning made the whole formation unpredictable and almost impossible to mark individual.
The system first became famous in the 1950s, thanks to the Hungary National Team and Burnley FC. It was further developed and given wings by Ajax and the Netherlands manager Rinus Michels and the club Captain Johan Cruyff. Dizzying carousel of interchanging players and constant movement off the ball left the static man-marking opponents clueless. This led Ajax to three consecutive European Cup titles in 1970-73 and the Dutch to the World Cup final in 1974. They narrowly lost the game 2-1 against West Germany.
Ajax received worldwide praise and became a symbol of positive and exciting response to the functional solidity of Catenaccio. The desire to play total football formed in every level of Ajax’s organisations, as young players in the club academy started to learn every position in a 4-3-3 formation.
Legendary Johan Cruyff became a coach after retirement and adopted some fluidity and aggression from Michel’s strategy to his own template. He ended up winning four successive Spanish League titles and one Champions League title with Barcelona. His Barcelona team was nicknamed “The Dream Team” as the Catalans achieved everything possible. Cruyff implemented a 3-4-3 Diamond formation. A young player called Pep Guardiola played in the heart of the midfield.
