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Oranje’s Total Football

October 4th, 2007 | By: Jan | 14 Comments »

I recently flicked through Desmond Morris’ The Soccer Tribe book. A must read for every fan (although a bit dated to be honest: not the content but the photography)…

Anyway, wonderful sociological study of football… In it, he talks about the Dutch Total Football and in his definition of the innovative style, he does not talk about 4-3-3 vs 4-4-2 or anything like that… Funnily enough, he does talk systems, but the 4-3-3 is even called the fortified defense system!!! In the 50s they played 3-2-5…

No, Total Football is described by Morris as the system in which any player can take over the role of any other player in the team. The positioning of the players on the pitch is not fixed anymore. The central striker (JC) comes back to midfield, the right winger (Rep) goes in to the central position. The right back (Suurbier) moves up to the right winger position and the right midfielder (Wim Jansen) takes over from Suurbier. Etc etc etc. Suurbier can cross a ball in, Rep can score with his head and Jansen knows how to tackle and defend.

Well well well… If Van Basten discusses the National football culture, he raves on about 4-3-3… But that is so beside the point!!

If San Marco (and JC) want to preserve the Dutch School of Football, we need to play Total Football. And that’s where we go wrong. Because, in this day and age, with highly paid professional players who will never have to work after their career, not all our players can tackle! Not all our players can play the ball as good with their right foot and their left (JC could, Van Persie can, Sneijder can), not all players can kick a corner ball into the box or can execute a sliding tackle or are able to head the ball! Why? It’s a disgrace, realy.

That is all trainable! Spend an extra hour per day on tackling, on heading, on crossing balls in. Every player can learn how to take on and pass an opponent. Every player can learn two or three tricks or dummies or shuffles to beat an opponent. There is no reason anymore for 100% professionals who only train, play, rest, eat, sleep to not spend more time to become an allround player. And then we can play Total Football again. Where Van der Vaart can cross a ball in with his right. Where Ruud van Gol can perform a sliding tackle or where Clarence Seedorf can score from the penalty spot :-).

Forget the “system”. It was Louis van Gaal who introduced the rigid positions for players. Wingers on the touchline and all that jazz. Tasks and responsibilities. It worked for his Ajax in 1995, but it seems JC and San Marco think that THAT is the Dutch School. It wasn’t and it isn’t. Dutch School is about positioning, flexibility, time/space and ball possession.

I wanna see De Cler cross the ball in, where winger Van Persie scores a header in the space left for him by central striker Van Nistelrooy who moved to the right wing…

And I want Van der Sar to score at least once in his career….

Tags: Clarence Seedorf, Group C, Johan Cruyff, Robin van Persie, The Netherlands

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Comments

By Bob | October 4th, 2007 at 11:51 am

Jan, terrific email report on the Morris book and the idea of Total Football.You are absolutely correct on every point except one small one–I have never seen van Persie use his right leg well. He seems to me to be left leg dominant, which as you so well state, can be corrected with proper training. In yesterday’s match, van Nistelrooij did not look good with his left legged attempt at a goal, following a beautiful cross from Robben. When a gifted footballer can use both feet well, the advantage is extraordinary.

International football is not American football, which has static positions and rigid positional responsibilities. All American football plays are programmed, especially on offense and thus the importance of the coach. International football (real football!) can not be programmed. It has been the genius of the Dutch to allow freelance movement within a system. If you move forward, I’ll cover your back. However, as you suggest, to do that well requires great talent by everyone and that is why, I believe, the ‘74 Netherlands team was the best of the Dutch teams. Once positional specialization becomes the norm, free flowing, entertaining football becomes more difficult to achieve. Real football is about space, triangles, communication, support and the talent to execute the technical aspects of the game. In the Real Madrid match yesterday, the defense stayed in their 4 line, and stunk up the joint with poor space coverage, communication, support and the execution of technical skills. Thus, 2-2.

One final note, again about the Real Madrid match yesterday, is that Drenthe does appear to have Total Football talent. What do you think?

Posted from United States

By Lerkot | October 4th, 2007 at 2:05 pm

Interesting thing about American soccer is that the education for youth coaches is pretty much the same as in Holland, hehe.

Well. Jan, you shouldnt forget however that Total Football and van Gaals system is pretty closely related. What Cruyff did in Barcelona might be the golden way, it was sort of an combination between borth styles. Important thing however is that they are both about playing attractiv and to keep the ball and using the flanks. 4-3-3 is indeed a good way in order to do all of those things, but it needs to be executed correctly. I see Cruyffs concern and the reasons for keeping 4-3-3 but at the moment it doesnt seem like it works.

By Lerkot | October 4th, 2007 at 2:11 pm

By the way. Sociological football book number one got to be David Winner’s Brilliant Orange. Another brilliant sociological football writer is journalist Simon Kuper who has his roots in Holland and South Africa.

By ferenc | October 4th, 2007 at 3:19 pm

this not about total football but about total eclipse: ajax lost against dynamo zagreb 2-3 and was eliminated in the uefa cup. in the extra time zagreb led 3-0. shame! shame! shame! very sad to see the once best team of the world doing so miserably. i hope that van basten forget ajax when he does his selection. i don’t understand why is ajax so bad… they have good players (huntelaar,emmanuelson,heitinga,stekelenburg,suarez,stam,davids) and they loose against 3rd class european teams. ajax was the team of my childhood and i always think about them but from now at the club level i will only concentrate my “second ajax” - barca.

shame on henk ten cate’s ajax!!! (and shame on people who said that henk had been the mastermind behind rijkaard’s barcelona triumphes.)

ajax should change its policy - instead of selling everyone they have to build a team capable of european level performance. ajax weakness is bad sign for the whole dutch football. i have no more words to describe my frustration.

Posted from Hungary

By netherlandfanboy | October 4th, 2007 at 3:35 pm

@ferenc: Totally agree. What the hell is so wrong with Ajax? Heerenveen also lost against Helsingbor 1-5. Oh my gosh, the only Dutch club that still has good result(sometimes only) is PSV which used only 1 Dutch player. Sad.

Posted from United States

By stephen | October 4th, 2007 at 4:54 pm

Tough night for Eredivisie teams - Ajax, Heerenveen, Twente and Groningen out of the Uefa Cup. Only AZ remains as well as PSV in the CL.

Posted from United States

By Lerkot | October 4th, 2007 at 5:00 pm

Nah, Twente is still there. Groningen fought hard and I hate when a hard fighting team lose at penaltys.

By Jan | October 4th, 2007 at 5:47 pm

Horrible state of football in Holland. Unbelievable. And Henkie goes to Chelsea, he is the new king there, Ajax will be relieved and Co Adriaanse comes back to Amsterdam. And Ajax will start allllll overrrrrr again….

More later.

Posted from Australia

By ferenc | October 4th, 2007 at 5:58 pm

and ajax will sell everyone again and again and again and again….

i have lots of respect for teams like groningen and twente because they were unhappy and fought hard against stronger teams. ajax is a totally different story. Jan: what do you think about ajax? why are they so bad at the european level? on the paper they have good players but they’ve been underperforming for 3-4 years.

Posted from Hungary

By stephen | October 4th, 2007 at 6:30 pm

The rumor mill is in full gear now with Ten Cate and Hiddink linked with Chelsea, and Jol and Co on the short-list as a replacement for Ten Cate.

Posted from United States

By Lerkot | October 5th, 2007 at 12:03 am

Jol wouldnt be the man for Ajax. He too lacks flexibility, just like ten Cate.

By goose | October 5th, 2007 at 3:10 am

Latest: TenCate signs with Chelsea as an assistant coach! hahaha…what the hell are they thinking??

btw; from now on you guys can cll me gooseNostramamus.. told you that tencate would be out before Christmas!!!

in the dutch media were told its defenitive, bbc is not so sure yet:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/c/chelsea/7027877.stm

Posted from Netherlands