As much as I wouldn't piss on Ronald Koeman if he was on fire, the Dutch were playing total football decades before Barca took up the mantle.
Because I'm bored...the backstory to the Ronald Koeman hatred:
In 1993, England were being coached by a talentless waster called Graham
Failure Taylor, who had assembled a team of braindeads to help him make sure that England failed to qualify for the 1994 World Cup in the US. The team's last hope of qualification was to go to Holland - who made it to the final that year - and beat them on their own soil. It was a frenzied match but, with the game still goalless, David Platt was released on goal by a long ball and was cynically pulled down by Ronald Koeman about half a step outside the penalty area. The official FIFA refereeing guidelines called for a straight red - but all Koeman got was a yellow. England failed to capitalise from the free kick, Holland broke away and earned a free kick of their own as Jan Wouters was brought down just outside England's box. Koeman stepped up and slotted the ball, with the aid of a deflection, into the England net. Holland went on to win 2-0.
You can see that very exchange
in real time here. The first foul is only a few seconds into the clip. This is from the amazing, fly-on-the-wall documentary "Do I Not Like That"*.
* So named after one of Taylor's nonsensical, in-game comments, the documentary was amazing because - while we'd all assumed that he didn't know what he was doing - this expose showed us exactly that and more. His whole staff were clueless, as they sat there, game after game watching a talented squad flounder, having not one single coherent thought between them. One episode, that would be hilarious if it wasn't so gut-wrenching, occurs later in the Holland game as Taylor prepares to introduce Nigel Clough - son of Brian, and a gifted and insightful player in his own right. Taylor gives him a series of conflicting duties and, as Clough tries to clarify his role, Taylor's instructions just get more confused and confusing. In the end, Clough just says "OK boss", takes up his customary left-side attacking position. I believe this is also on the above clip if you keep watching. I can't.
OK, that's probably enough on this topic.
