Total Football

For other uses, see Total Football (disambiguation).

Total Football (Dutch: totaalvoetbal) is a tactical system in association football in which any outfield player can take over the role of any other player in a team. A player who moves out of his position is replaced by another from his team, thus retaining the team's intended organisational structure. In this fluid system, no outfield player is fixed in a predetermined role; anyone can successively play as an attacker, a midfielder and a defender. The only player who must stay in a specified position is the goalkeeper.

Total Football's tactical success depends largely on the adaptability of each footballer within the team, in particular the ability to quickly switch positions depending on the on-field situation. The theory requires players to be comfortable in multiple positions; hence, it requires intelligent and technically diverse players.

Manager Rinus Michels is generally credited with introducing this system during the 1970s,[1] at Dutch club Ajax and the Netherlands national football team.[2] However, some authors credit teams such as the Austrian Wunderteam of the 1930s or the Golden Team of Hungary of the 1950s for having played in a similar style to Total Football.[3][4] Both sides were influenced by Jimmy Hogan, who was in turn influenced by the combination game.[5][6][7]

  1. ^ Godsell, Andrew (2012). Planet Football. Lulu.com. p. 40. ISBN 978-1471616044.
  2. ^ Augustyn, Adam. "Rinus Michels". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 7 August 2023.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference HesseSimpson was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ McDougall, Alan (2020). Contested Fields: A Global History of Modern Football. University of Toronto Press. p. 113. ISBN 978-1487594565.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Panenka was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference Guardian2003 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference Marcotti was invoked but never defined (see the help page).