Johan Neeskens

[Silkyskills1]

Not seen it mentioned here but Dutch midfielder, Johann Neeskens has died at the age of 73. What a dynamo he was. Brilliant midfielder in one of the most exciting national teams I've ever seen. RIP.

[Woodleyclaret]

Top player in the great Dutch side in the late 70s a travesty that his team lost the World Cup in Argentina. The Argies had the great Kempes a real No10 who didn't need to be a cheat to win.

[Tricky Trevor]

RIP Johann. A wonderful player who scored Hollands penalty in the ‘74 World Cup Final.
Never got the credit he fully deserved because of playing alongside Cruyff.

[Silkyskills1]

Prior to the 1970's Dutch football was pretty much a joke. Their national side whipping boys for many otjer international teams. Come the 1970's and a huge turnaround for club sides like Ajax and Feyernoord and consequently the national side. Skilful players, bright enthusiastic coaches got them.to within a whisker of international glory on two occasions. It was a time when this could happen; everyone had a chance to not only improve but compete at the highest level. It was exciting. Neeskens, Cruyff, Van Hanegem, Rep, Rensenbrink became household names. Think it may have been the last time an 'underdog' has risen to the top and sustained their effort.

[ClaretTony]

What a side they had back then and Neeskens was one of their outstanding players

[Buxtonclaret]

R.I.P
Top, top player in an extremely good side.
They really put the Dutch on the map with that side.
Johan was integral to it.

[Goalposts]

Greatest football team of the 70s, and a tragedy they didn’t win a World Cup losing to germany in Munich and Argentina in buenes Aries.

Absolutely created the beautiful game adjective and total football. Every child during those world cups was pretending they where cruyff rep and neeskins..

Paved the way for muhren and thyssen going to Ipswich in the mid 70’s under Bobby robson, who i think where the first Dutch players in england

[IanMcL]

Total footballer.

[tally]

R.I.P. Johan. He could give as much as he took. Allrounder a Dutch legend in a legendary Dutch team

[ecc]

Really saddened by this news. Wish to write a tribute as meaningful as possible but not got the inspiration.

Johan Cruyff's death was hard, very hard to take. We knew he was ill. I have no idea concerning Johan Neeskens.

The whole world of football is in mourning this evening.

[ClaretLoup]

Was lucky enough to see Neeskens play for Barcelona in the UEFA Cup vs Ipswich Town November 1977 in the same team as Johan Cruyff, both were in the twilight of their careers and Barca were whipped 3 - 0 with goals from Eric Gates, Trevor Whymark and Brian Talbot.

[Stayingup]

Prior to the 1970's Dutch football was pretty much a joke. Their national side whipping boys for many otjer international teams. Come the 1970's and a huge turnaround for club sides like Ajax and Feyernoord and consequently the national side. Skilful players, bright enthusiastic coaches got them.to within a whisker of international glory on two occasions. It was a time when this could happen; everyone had a chance to not only improve but compete at the highest level. It was exciting. Neeskens, Cruyff, Van Hanegem, Rep, Rensenbrink became household names. Think it may have been the last time an 'underdog' has risen to the top and sustained their effort.

Yes and the De Boers and Arie Haan I think. Wonderful team. I.once sat close to Cryuff in Barcelona at a variety show elieve it or not a truly great player - as was Neeskens.

[Quicknick]

I thought he would have been older than 73. A truly great player in a great side. RIP, Johan.

[RicardoMontalban]

Yes and the De Boers and Arie Haan I think. Wonderful team. I.once sat close to Cryuff in Barcelona at a variety show elieve it or not a truly great player - as was Neeskens.

The De Boer twins were a later generation, 90’s to early ‘00’s, but also great players. Especially Frank.

Brilliant Orange by David Winner is a fantastic book. A must for anyone interested in Dutch football.

[Rammy1968]

The De Boer twins were a later generation, 90’s to early ‘00’s, but also great players. Especially Frank.

Brilliant Orange by David Winner is a fantastic book. A must for anyone interested in Dutch football.

Great book loved how the Dutch played in the 70’s great to watch and so unlucky not to win the World Cup on two occasions

[Herts Clarets]

The De Boer twins were a later generation, 90’s to early ‘00’s, but also great players. Especially Frank.

Brilliant Orange by David Winner is a fantastic book. A must for anyone interested in Dutch football.

Maybe getting mixed up with the Van Der Kerkhof twins who were in the 70s Dutch sides

[Stayingup]

Didn't the phrase 'Total Football' originate from Neeskens Cryuff's Dutch team?

[RicardoMontalban]

Maybe getting mixed up with the Van Der Kerkhof twins who were in the 70s Dutch sides

René and Willy, yeah those are the chaps.

[ecc]

Didn't the phrase 'Total Football' originate from Neeskens Cryuff's Dutch team?

It did but not completely.

Many observers trace the concept back to Nelson born and former Claret, Jimmy Hogan. He inspired the coaches of the Austrian Wunderteam and the great Hungary team of Puskas. Rinus Michels, the Dutch manager, was in turn inspired two other Englishman, Jack Reynolds (1940s) and Vic Buckingham (1950s/1960s) both of whom were managers of Ajax.

The world back then was so different that there were coaches working in their own way without knowing what the others were doing. So, it's not easy to say who started what.

The concept of Total Football is, IMHO, a little exaggerated.

"Total football is a tactical ssystem in which any outfield player can take over the role of any other player in a team. A player who moves out of his position is replaced by another from his team, thus retaining the team's intended organisational structure. In this fluid system, no outfield player is fixed in a predetermined role; anyone can successively play as an attacker, a midfielder and a defender."

I would say that was true of maybe four or five of the 1974 team. Cruyff certainly could have played in any position except that of a stopper.

That's why he was the brain of the team. Michels and Cruyff understood each other perfectly and I think the latter didn't need to be told when to change tactics.

For me there were two other "brains" in the team namely Neeskens who was the box-to-box midfielder and Ruud Krol who controlled the defence (he played lb in 1974 and libero in 1978).

Comparing generations is almost impossible and, perhaps, pointless. What we do know is that certain players have brought something new to the game.

Johan Neeskens was one of them.

RIP Johan.

[RicardoMontalban]

It did but not completely.

Many observers trace the concept back to Nelson born and former Claret, Jimmy Hogan. He inspired the coaches of the Austrian Wunderteam and the great Hungary team of Puskas. Rinus Michels, the Dutch manager, was in turn inspired two other Englishman, Jack Reynolds (1940s) and Vic Buckingham (1950s/1960s) both of whom were managers of Ajax.

The world back then was so different that there were coaches working in their own way without knowing what the others were doing. So, it's not easy to say who started what.

The concept of Total Football is, IMHO, a little exaggerated.

"Total football is a tactical ssystem in which any outfield player can take over the role of any other player in a team. A player who moves out of his position is replaced by another from his team, thus retaining the team's intended organisational structure. In this fluid system, no outfield player is fixed in a predetermined role; anyone can successively play as an attacker, a midfielder and a defender."

I would say that was true of maybe four or five of the 1974 team. Cruyff certainly could have played in any position except that of a stopper.

That's why he was the brain of the team. Michels and Cruyff understood each other perfectly and I think the latter didn't need to be told when to change tactics.

For me there were two other "brains" in the team namely Neeskens who was the box-to-box midfielder and Ruud Krol who controlled the defence (he played lb in 1974 and libero in 1978).

Comparing generations is almost impossible and, perhaps, pointless. What we do know is that certain players have brought something new to the game.

Johan Neeskens was one of them.

RIP Johan.

The term ‘total football’ does indeed come from the Dutch, though whether the concepts behind it are solely Dutch or have earlier roots is debatable. Both Brilliant Orange and Jonathan Wilson’s Inverting The Pyramid have good bits in this.

If I remember correctly from Brilliant Orange the etymology behind the phrase totaalvoetbal comes from the Dutch psyche of seeing everything in a system, whether its total architecture, or reclaiming land from the sea with djkes, The Dutch Republic, the lot, it’s something peculiar about the Dutch collective consciousness.

That’s not to say the Dutch invented all of these concepts, like you say there were a sprinkling of English coaches influencing these ideas. But the phrase is theirs.

[ecc]

Hi RicardoMontalban,

Thank you for your post.

I haven't read either of the two books but they are considered to be two of the best books about football.

I will read more about this Dutch vision which seems to holistic if I've understood correctly.

Although I watched the 1974 WC, I was too young (12) to understand the Total Football concept. You'd need to feed their games into a computer to visualise the idea of perpetual motion involved. In 1978 despite having most of the team, the genius that was Cruyff was absent. They couldn't be as strong without him but they were still damn good.

[ecc]

As expected, Jonathan Wilson has written an obituary.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/20 ... l-pantheon

[Clarets4me]

Prior to the 1970's Dutch football was pretty much a joke. Their national side whipping boys for many otjer international teams. Come the 1970's and a huge turnaround for club sides like Ajax and Feyernoord and consequently the national side. Skilful players, bright enthusiastic coaches got them.to within a whisker of international glory on two occasions. It was a time when this could happen; everyone had a chance to not only improve but compete at the highest level. It was exciting. Neeskens, Cruyff, Van Hanegem, Rep, Rensenbrink became household names. Think it may have been the last time an 'underdog' has risen to the top and sustained their effort.

Dutch football only allowed Professional players from 1955, and the Eredivise was only started for the 1956-57 season, with full time professional players. To get from that, to one of it's Clubs, Ajax, winning 3 straight European Cups ( 1971-72-73 ) in 15 years or so, was an incredible achievement ...