Rinus Michels, the coach and manager of Ajax and the great Dutch football team of the 1970s, tore football’s tactical textbook to shreds and came up with Totaalvoetbal , translated to English as ‘Total Football’. It liberated players from fixed, traditional roles of attacker, mid-fielder and defender, allowing players to search for space and employ the high press.
Defenders attacked and attackers defended. Captain Johan Cryuff embraced the idea, took it to Ajax and Barcelona as manager, and today we have Pep Guardiola at Man City still employing it with minor tweaks of his own. The 1974 Dutch team is often called as the greatest team never to win the football World Cup. But it created a dynasty and left a legacy.