page_title: Total Football
hierarchical_section_title: Total Football
caption_attribution_description: Nederlands: Johan Cruijff (Ajax) scoort tegen HFC Haarlem
context_page_description: Total football is a tactical theory in association football in which any outfield player can take over the role of any other player in a team. Early proponents of the theory were the Austrian Wunderteam of the 1930s, the Argentine side "La Maquina" of River Plate in the 1940s, the Golden Team of Hungary in the 1950s, English team Burnley in the late 1950s and early 1960s, and Brazilian side Santos in the 1960s. It was made popular by Dutch club Ajax in the early 1970s and the Netherlands national football team at the 1974 FIFA World Cup.
  In Total Football, 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.
context_section_description: Total football (Dutch: totaalvoetbal) is a tactical theory in association football in which any outfield player can take over the role of any other player in a team. Early proponents of the theory were the Austrian Wunderteam of the 1930s, the Argentine side "La Maquina" of River Plate in the 1940s, the Golden Team of Hungary in the 1950s, English team Burnley in the late 1950s and early 1960s, and Brazilian side Santos in the 1960s. It was made popular by Dutch club Ajax in the early 1970s and the Netherlands national football team at the 1974 FIFA World Cup.
  In Total Football, 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 very intelligent and technically diverse players.
  During the 1970s, Ajax played some of their finest football ever, achieving a perfect home record (46–0–0) for two full seasons (1971–72 and 1972–73), just one defeat in the whole of the 1971–72 season, and celebrating four titles in 1972 (the Netherlands national league, KNVB Cup, European Cup and Intercontinental Cup).
caption: Johan Cruyff playing with Ajax in 1971. Cruyff was instrumental in Ajax's dominance of European football in the early 1970s. Due to the way Cruyff played the game, he is still referred to as "the Total Footballer".[1]
exif: {}