Many great teams have players who have come through the youth system or have been at the club for a long time as their captains. I'm thinking of Steven Gerrard at Liverpool, John Terry at Chelsea, Raul at Real Madrid, as well as Puyol at Barcelona and Gary Neville at Man United.
History shows that it is incredibly tough for a defender to be named Footballer of the Year because over the course of a year there is normally always a forward who steals the headlines up front.
Cruyff's idea was, quite literally, to play football - nothing more, nothing less. His idea of how football should be played was based not on controlling the opponent, but on the ball and the game.
We make adjustments and changes before and sometimes also during the games in order adapt to the opposition. The manager will, for example, tell the striker to make different runs or position the central midfielders slightly differently in relation to each other.