AJAX: Louis van Gaal’s Total Football Revival, 1991—1997

Total Football was dead. The eighties killed all hope, with its wing-back system, sweepers in the backline and rampant hooliganism and stadium disaster. Football needed a bit of light injected back into it, and so too did Ajax.

Johan Cruyff came back, and tried, but was quickly lured away by Barcelona again. Up step Louis van Gaal, a football war of philosophical ideas and Ajax’s Total Recall to the top of the European game.

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00:00 – Introduction
00:35 – Since Total Football
04:30 – Total Recall
19:55 – Legacy

References for Issue #3:
The Ajax Way (Dylan O’Connell)
The Blizzard (Issues: 14, 15, 18, 20)
The Boot Room Boys (Peter Hooton)
Dutch Masters (Gary Thacker)
The Greatest Games (Jamie Carragher)
Inverting the Pyramid (Jonathan Wilson)
The King Takes Over (Shareef Abdallah)
The Mixer (Michael Cox)
The Life of Total Football (James Jackson)
Spice Up Your Life (Jonathon Aspey)
The Summer of Total Football (Neil Fredrik Jensen)
These Football Times (Issues: Ajax, European Cup)
Zonal Marking (Michael Cox)

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