I’m not too familiar with soccer/football, but I’ve watched Ted Lasso for the second time and I still don’t fully grasp what total football is. Can anyone break this down to barney level for me? What exactly is total football? What are the pros and cons to it vs other styles of play? It just does not compute in my head.
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Total football was a concept generally credited to Dutch coach Rinus Michels in the 1970s.
Briefly, the concept focussed on all players being able to play in any position. This allowed a fluid formation, where a defender could take the ball forward and attack while another player, a midfielder for example, could fill in behind and cover the empty space.
This has advantages against man-marking defending, where the opposition could be easily pulled out of their formation and introduce mistakes.
The biggest disadvantage was actually finding enough players with the skill level to cover any position with ease, and the practicality of having players shifting from position to position.
Typically, teams will play to a certain structure, e.g. a 4-3-3 structure with four defenders, three midfielders, and three forwards. However, the only “special” role in football is the goalkeeper, who is the sole player who can grab the ball with their hands. Everybody else – attacker, defender, midfielder, wing, striker – those are just descriptions of what your usual job is, not a rigid role enforced by the rules. Attackers can and will defend, defenders can and will attack.
Total football is a playstyle that embraces this idea. If your players are sufficiently flexible, and for some reason an attacker is further back in the field, and a defender further forward, they can just take each other’s spots in that structure, rather than both run back to their respective positions.
I would argue it’s free flowing attack. Balls bounce back and forth from central players to overlapping attackers. Think of a fast break with numerical advantage in soccer, basketball, or hockey. There’s fluidity to a pass or two that is that moment of beautiful execution. Total football is attempting that on every play, but with all 10 players. Your defenders and midfielders flow forward, passing around the defense. The attackers have the ability to fill in as defenders when the ball is turned over in transition.
The show mentions variations of Total Football in the modern era as peak Barcelona under Messi and some of Man City under Pep. They don’t generally commit centerbacks as much on regular play, but the elaborate passing starts at the back and fullbacks can fly forward.
There’s nothing wrong with pure total football from the 1970s. It makes man marking very difficult, it uses quick passes to surpass the defense and wear them down. But it does require a lot of discipline to cover transitions back to defense and requires really good all around footballers. Modern variations often utilize centerbacks in normal use with added height for set pieces.
There are defnse positons in the back and offense positions in the front. When the offense people goninto attack, they “leave their postion” and the defence player go from their defence positon into the offense postion. So everyone is attacking at the end. The otherway round if there is attack to defend every defender goes defending leaving their position and the offense players close in the defence position so every player is defending. Thats toral football.
This is very strong at the occurring situation but risky if something changes.
On the other hand players only do what their postion is meant to do, so at any moment in the gane, everything is covered but not as heavy
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