Total Football(1970s)

Pioneered (in the World Cup, at any rate) by the Dutch and the Germans in the
1974 World Cup in West Germany, the team plays as one giant unit. There are
no fixed roles in a team (except the goalkeeper of course.) When a fullback
has the ball and thinks he can start an attack, he can move up on his own,
and any player, even a forward, can help out by moving back to fill up the
gap in defense. In other words, the team is not divided into defenders,
midfielders and forwards; anyone can do anything (intelligently, of course)
he wishes to.

However, as total football is nothing but 10 skilful players having fun, the
Dutch team lost its light springy image in 1978 without Johan Cruyff, star of
the 1974 Dutch World Cup team, who announced he would not play in that World
Cup. Franz Beckenbauer played in the libero position for Germany, and often
moved up to join in the attacks, thus bewildering the opposition fullbacks
who already had their own man-marking assignments. The German flavour was
also diluted when Franz Beckenbauer followed Cruyff and "retired" for the '78
World Cup.

Advice on using total football: This style of play is not really a formation.
Rather, the advantages of using this against an opponent is that the
opposition will spend their time trying to figure out what tactics your team
is using while your team can take advantage of the confusion and (hopefully)
score! This should only be used, however, if the communication and rapport
between the players is very good, and that most players have above average
ball skills. Otherwise passes might go off target, possession might be lost,
and big gaps might be created that the opposition can use to devastating
effect. In other words, this is an all-or-nothing formation... either it
works well, or it backfires badly. Not much of an in-between.
--
FROM 219.224.177.94