The origins of Total Football

Pride of Nottingham's has been sent this article written by Northants Pie, we hope you enjoy the read - It highlights the form of total football. The origins of what is commonly known as Total Football always seem to be credited as the beaches of Brazil or the adaptive pitches of the Dutch. This ideal of how to play was executed perfectly by Barcelona; it turned them into an all-conquering European club side and it went further into the Spanish international team but little do people know that this system of play has its roots planted firmly in a former Soviet Republic.

Hungary - Magnificent Magyars

The three creators of the total football idealism were Gusztav Sebes, a Deputy Minister for Sport and the Hungarian national team manager, Bela Guttmann, a former professional footballer and coach who is credited with playing a big part in Eusebio's career, and Marton Bukovi, also a former professional who had the biggest part to play in the development of the total football ideal: he was responsible for the 4-2-4 WM formation, which centered around a deep lying centre forward, whilst he was the coach at MTK Hungaria FC. This centre forward, Nandor Hidegkuti, would display the skill and timing needed to play this role with devastating effect at Wembley on the 25-11-1953, scoring a hat-trick when the Magnificent Magyars became the first team from outside of the home countries and indeed only the second team ever to record a victory at Wembley. The scoreline was a scarcely believable 6 - 3 away win. England were the number 1 ranked team in the world at this time, with such luminaries as Matthews, Mortensen, Merrick, Sewell, Wright, & Ramsey.

A hastily arranged friendly was agreed for 6 months later in Hungary as a warm up for the 1954 World Cup, and on the 23rd May 1954, England turned up expecting to overturn the freak result suffered at Wembley. However, they were suitably dispatched 7-1 in a game which many said could easily have been the biggest international victory of all time, had Hungary not chosen to try and perfect the movement within their radical formation.

This setup included a brilliant defensive midfielder, Jozsef Bozsik, who, with his ability to 'read' the game, started many of the attacks whilst also using his talent to break down a lot of opposing attacks before they got started. Other key players included Gyula Grosics, who is accredited with creating the sweeper keeper role whilst being ahead of his time with his technical ability, Zoltan Czibor, a left winger with electric pace and a fine passer of the ball, Sandor Kocsis, an inside forward (this position would translate to a striker type role today) who holds the record for the highest average goals scored of all players to have made over 43 appearances in FIFA Class-A competition – 75 goals in 68 appearances, an average of 1.1 goals per game. He also holds the record for the highest goals per game ratio at a single World Cup with 2.2 goals per game, and he was the first player to score two hat-tricks in a World Cup. Only Just Fontaine of France has scored more goals in a single World Cup. The final and possibly most critical member of the team was Ferenc Puskas, one of, if not the most talented player ever to grace a football pitch. Puskas scored 86 goals in 85 internationals but is only credited with scoring 84 due to a mistake made by a referee in a friendly match. He scored a scarcely believable 508 in 521 appearances across both the Hungarian league for Budapest Honved (352 in 341 appearances) & the Primera Division for none other than Real Madrid (156 in 180 appearances).

A clue as to how radical and forward thinking this formation and ethos on playing were is that the only team to perfect it since have been Barcelona under Pep Guardiola.

The WM formation, when attacking, has both full backs playing as wingers with a holding central midfielder in front of two centre halves. You then have a centre forward playing behind two inside forwards, the king pin of the formation floating linking everything together at the very spear of the attack.

On Paper it is a 4 - 2 - 4 formation, the real trick though which nobody understood until Pep Guardiola was the movement needed to make this formation work; when they were defending, it became a 4 - 4 - 1 - 1 formation,

As an idea this is how the current Notts team would look playing this way

Hungary’s radical idea led to a 32-game unbeaten run, an Olympic Championship and the 1954 World Cup final where they faced West Germany in the infamous Battle of Bern who, knowing what they were facing, played the game in a cynical and aggressive manner which, at the time, wasn’t seen to be an issue.

Breakdown of the Magnificent Magyars

Throughout this period the political state of Hungary was always volatile but towards the end of the 1950's it was becoming desperate and those that could leave did; indeed, one of the three radical coaches, Bela Guttman organised a trip for his team, Budapest Honved, to South America during 1957; whilst the team flew back at the end of the tour, he didn't, he stayed within Brazil to become the coach of Sao Paulo FC. It was here that he played the infamous 4-2-4 formation which led the Brazilian national side to play this formation at the 1958 World Cup, which they subsequently won. Thus, the story of total football starting in Brazil was born.

The true fonder of the 4-2-4 formation, Marton Bukovi, fled Hungary in the early 1960's to become coach of Olympiakos FC, producing many Greek players who would go on to international acclaim. From there, he went into Dutch youth football, and his ideals are still paying dividends today.