2. ‘The Road to the Total Football’!

- The basis of Ajax’s big break through was a combination of talent,

technique and discipline. Jany van der Veen and Rinus Michels played a
big part in that.
- Van der Been not only taught us a love of football and the club, but was
able to work on our technique in a very refined way. He also had an eye for
tricks on the field that we absorbed into our positional play. What I learned
was that football is a process of making mistakes, then analyzing them to
learn lessons and not get frustrated.
- At the end of each game I was already thinking about the next and what I
could do better.
- Following on from Van der Veen’s training, we further develop our
footballing skills with Michels. This kind of professionalization of the team
meant that we could train as a unit during the day, and become much
better, both technically and physically, as a result. Once that had been
achieved, he hammered away at our mentality. The special thing was that
following his instructions never created an atmosphere of rigid obedience.
- We knew what we were doing, and we did it with pleasure. That was often
the most intimidating thing for our opponents. And because that was the
atmosphere that I was surrounded by at the club from a very young age, I
never felt scared of failure or worried about an upcoming match.
- We wanted to win games, but we also wanted to entertain the fans
and send them home happy (that’s not an easy thing to do).
- What Michels brought was the importance of organization on the field.
- The spectators had been working all week; we had to entertain them on
their day off with fine football, and at the same time get a good result.
- ‘Make the crowds happy’ - I understood that was a vital part of my job
as well.
 - The good player is the player who touches the ball just once and knows
where to run.

- I always said that football should be played beautifully, and in an attacking

way. It must be a spectacle.
- Every trainer talks about movement, about running a lot and putting a shift
in. I say don’t run so much. Football is a game you play with your brain.
You have to be in the right place at the right moment, not too early, not too
late.
- Winning was the consequence of the process that we had concentrated
on. The rst step was to bring enjoyment to the crowd, the next was the
win.
- What I learned from Michels left an indelible mark on how I understood the
game. Like his belief that defence is a matter of giving your opponent as
little time as possible, or that when you’ve got possession of the ball you
have to ensure that you have as much space as possible, and when you
lose the ball you must minimize the space your opponent has. In fact,
everything in football is a function of distance.
- The biggest lessons were from falling and failing. What had happened had
happened, and I tried to learn something new from it and move on to the
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 next chapter. I have never looked back much, and when I closed the door
at home, even when we had lost, I was able to put it all behind me and
forget about it.
- Football is a game of mistakes. What I loved was the mathematics of the
game, the analysis, how to improve.
- The most important to create Total Football was that we had an instinct,
we had been playing together for years, and knew each other very well.
- The fundamental idea is teamwork: arrive as a team, leave as a team and
return as a team.

- The ‘Curve Goal’ v Ado den Haag 1969: I controlled along clearance
from our defence with my right foot on the left-hand side of the pitch and
because the ball was still spinning when I hit it towards the goal it curved
in over the keeper. It was pure intuition. Like any trick I ever did, I hadn’t
practised it - the idea just came to me, I had no other options.
- Total Football: this was a style of playing that could only be carried out by
footballers who could play not just for themselves, but for the rest of the
team too. ‘Ten’ players needed constantly to be aware of what the man
with the ball was doing and anticipate what he would do next.

- False 9 (Real Madrid-0 FC Barcelona-5): Rinus Michels had devised a new

system for the match against Real Madrid. In that game I didn’t play as an
out and out Striker, but dropped back a little, meaning that other players
could drive into the space that was created.

- As a leader you serve by always taking responsibility. I’ve always said that
having a family helped me in that. It taught me to be more involved with
other people. That involvement is also part of Total Football.
- Rinus Michels was instrumental in my development as a player by always
giving me the right advice at the right time. From when I was an eighteen-
year old at Ajax and he singled me out and made me think about match
tactics, he always brought a huge amount of professionalism to the
context in which I had to perform. Michels picked up the pace and paid
 constant attention to every detail of our development. Later on, when I
became a coach and advisor, I discovered for myself how di cult it is if
your players aren’t inspired to perform to the maximum. When that
happens, however much you want and however hard you try, you’re never
going to succeed.

- To achieve the next level you need other people, because you’ll never
manage to do it on your own.
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