The Total trinity

Footballing greats Mario Zagallo and Franz Beckenbauer leave an enduring legacy, revolutionising the game's tactics and shaping its modern era

Brazil’s Mario Zagallo and Germany’s Franz Beckenbauer who died within days of each other this month, were more than just record holders. As two of the three managers who won the World Cup as player and manager (55-year-old Didier Deschamps being the third), they are assured a prominent place in the pantheon of footballing greats. But in footballing heaven — the existence of which every fan, even atheist ones, can confirm — Zagallo, 92, and Beckenbauer, 78, join Johan Cruyff, who died in 2016 at the ridiculously young age of 68, as the trinity of strategic and tactical greats whose legacy can be seen in Total Football, the fluid and fast-moving game we see today.

There are eternal arguments about who “invented” this style — the Austrians, Argentines, Hungarians (those “Magical Magyars” under Ferenc Puskas), the English, all stake their claim. But it is mostly attributed to Netherlands coach Rinus Michels, under whom Cruyff is considered the wunderkind of the art. 

Whoever the “inventor” — like science, footballing tacticians always stand on the shoulders of giants — it was Zagallo’s Brazilian team in the 1970 World Cup that gave world audiences a dazzling display of Total Football, deploying his concept of flexibility within a structured formation. Till then football formations were limited to 4-4-2 or 4-3-3, with each player assigned a specific role. Under Zagallo, full backs became wingers, and the wingers would move freely to get themselves into goal-scoring positions, effectively creating an attacking front of five or six who constantly shifted positions (this was known as the “false 4-3-3 formation). Swift passing, preferably one-touch, required every player to get into a position to receive a pass from the ball carrier, making a team’s approach play less predictable.

Today, this legacy can be seen in the “false nine” position (nine traditionally being the number of the spearheading striker) position in which Lionel Messi, wearing the number 10 shirt, excelled, as did Cristiano Ronaldo on the wing with number seven on his back . Full backs can be offensive players too. Real Madrid’s legendary left back, Roberto Carlos, was known as the most offensive-minded left back in history, scoring 47 goals for his club team and 11 for his country. Liverpool’s Alexander Arnold, wearing number 66, plays the same role from right back.   

Zagallo won the 1970 World Cup, his first as manager, deploying these tactics to a T. But he came up against the brilliance of the classic Total Football exponents, the Dutch under Michels, with Cruyff playing the role of attacking midfielder/striker in the 1974 World Cup. It was Germany captained by another wily tactician, Franz Beckenbauer, Der Kaiser, who broke hearts by beating the Dutch to lift the trophy that year.

Beckenbauer was a centre-back who re-created the role of the creative “libero”, beyond that of a sweeper who cleared the lines from a team’s own half, into a creative position that saw him dribbling into the midfield to start a move that could break up the attacking team’s run and allow his team to score on a break.

Total Football ensures that players are judged on a much wider set of metrics — including number of assists (introduced in 1994), successful passes completed and their field position off the ball. They have to be thinkers, not just doers. As for formations, 4-4-2 and 4-3-3 are still around but you can also see teams playing 3-2-4-1 (Manchester City coach Pep Guardiola schtick), 3-5-2, 4-5-1 and variations in between. And Tiki-Taka, diamond formations, gegenpressing are all the vibrant legacies of this Total revolution that the trinity demonstrated so skilfully in their heyday.