legendary dutch boss michels dies legendary dutch coach rinus michels  the man credited with developing  total football   has died aged 77.  referred to in the netherlands as  the general   michels led the dutch at the 1974 world cup - when they reached the final only to lose 2-1 to germany. however  he guided his side to the 1988 european championship title with a 2-0 win over the soviet union in the final. michels played for ajax and coached the side to four national titles between 1965-71 and a european cup in 1971. his 1970s dutch team was built around johan cruyff and johan neeskens and introduced the concept of  total football  to the world. the strategy was to foster team coherence and individual imagination - with all players possessing the skills to play in any part of the pitch. cruyff was the on-field organiser of a team whose players rotated in and out of defence at will and was encouraged to play creative attacking football. michels had recently undergone heart surgery and dutch football federation (knvb) spokesman frank huizinga said:  he was one of the best coaches we had in history.  the no-nonsense coach also enjoyed spells at barcelona  who he took to a spanish title in 1974  fc cologne and bayer leverkusen. michels  named coach of the century by world football s governing body fifa in 1999  also won five caps for the netherlands as a bruising centre forward. dutch sports minister clemence ross-van dorp said:  he was the man who  together with cruyff  made dutch football big.