Hero of Holland's 1974 campaign, Johan Neeskens, talks about Total Football, Ajax, Barcelona & more...
MUMBAI: When Rinus Michels created a beautiful package called Total Football, he was eyeing success more than anything else. It unfortunately eluded Michels, at least with the Johans (Cruyff and Neeskens) in the thick of things in the 1970s.
Neeskens, who is in Mumbai to oversee a project called World Coach in association with Acosa which helps a coach not only train a boy or girl but also impart life skills, feels not winning the World Cup was difficult to digest but he is happy that people are still talking about the brand of football that Michels created.
"A new template for football was created, but 1974 and 1978 World Cups demonstrated that when you are pitted against the home team with a backing of 80,000 fans even Total Football can fail," says Neeskens.
But, now almost half a century later, he is glad that he was part of that era. "Yeah, we did not win but that we are still being talked about means we left a good impression with our performance. We created a new image for football, it was attractive and that is what people like," said Neeskens.
He says Michel's creation was already being tested with Ajax and that brought great success. "Behind the efforts of reaching two (World Cup) finals is the hard work and knowledge from a great coach who was already trying it out with Ajax for four to five years, building up a team that he wanted to play, with a lot of attacking, with a lot of pressing with lot of beautiful football, creating the opportunities and scoring the goals."
Neeskens feels the era helped 'Oranje smagen' (the Oranje flavour) work. One of them is continuity. "In those days we played along with the same players for years. Not like now when you have players changing clubs every single season. When you play with same players over the years, you communication improves. Holland also were blessed with lot of good players."
Though Neeskens and the Holland team were denied World Cup glory, he enjoyed success at the continental level with Ajax Amsterdam. "I was only 18 when I became a part of the Ajax team in 1970/71. I was never expecting to play in the XI but once I did, I never went out of the team. "Michels was creating a team over four-five years and that team was so creative that it made for a good spectacle. It also helped that Ajax won the Champions League (Called European Cup then) three times in a row. So at 21, I had won three titles in a row. We had a fantastic team, maybe the best in the world at that point in time."
Neeskens feels the game has changed so much that their brand of football would be difficult because of the lack of space that they got on the field. "In the 70s, there was more space. Now, there is limited individual space. Your technique and insight has to be good and you need to read the situation and have awareness."
He feels the emphasis on team is changing the dynamics of the game. "A player is not only a defender to take the ball away from a rival but build up situation with good passes. A striker is not only a striker. So when he loses the ball, he has to defend the ball. Now you attack or defend as a team, not an individual thing anymore."
Having crossed over and taken the role of coaching, he feels players are averse to advice from coaches like he experienced in Barcelona. "When I was assisting Frank Rijkaard, there were lot of great players in Barcelona, from Ronaldinho to Messi and Iniesta and Xavi. . . . They don't like to be told. I have been asked who is the biggest star, I always say, the game is," says Neeskens who indeed let the biggest star shine on the biggest stage for eight years.
Sometimes, success does not matter. He will live with the memory of the glory days of the 1970s.
