Tiki-taka

Spanish (red kits) midfield position against Switzerland (white kits) at the World Cup in 2010.

Tiki-taka (commonly spelled tiqui-taca [ˈtikiˈtaka] in Spanish) is a style of play in football characterised by short passing and movement, working the ball through various channels, and maintaining possession. The style is primarily associated with La Liga club Barcelona from Johan Cruyff's tenure as manager to the present, and the Spanish national team under managers Luis Aragonés and Vicente del Bosque. It was also seen under Arsène Wenger's Arsenal that won the 2003–04 FA Premier League. Tiki-taka moves away from the traditional thinking of formations in football to a concept derived from zonal play.[1][2][3]

Origins and development

Spain national football team that won Euro 2012.

The late Spanish broadcaster Andrés Montes is generally credited with coining and popularizing the phrase tiki-taka during his television commentary on LaSexta for the 2006 World Cup,[4][5] although the term was already in colloquial use in Spanish football[6] and may originate with Javier Clemente.[7] In his live commentary of the Spain versus Tunisia match, Montes used the phrase to describe Spain's precise, elegant passing style: "Estamos tocando tiki-taka tiki-taka."[5] The phrase's origin may be onomatopoeic[5] (alluding to the quick, short distance "tick" passing of the ball between players) or derived from a juggling toy named tiki-taka in Spanish (clackers in English).[8]

The roots of what would develop into tiki-taka began to be implemented by Johan Cruyff during his tenure as manager of Barcelona from 1988 to 1996.[9] The style of play continued to develop under Dutch managers Louis van Gaal and Frank Rijkaard and has been adopted by other La Liga teams.[9][10] Barcelona's Dutch managers made it a point to promote from their youth system, and Barcelona's La Masia youth academy has been credited with producing a generation of technically talented, often physically small, players such as Xavi, Andrés Iniesta, Cesc Fàbregas, and Lionel Messi;[11][12] players with excellent touch, vision and passing, who excel at maintaining possession.[13]

Pep Guardiola managed Barcelona from 2008 to 2012. Under his guidance, tiki-taka reached new extremes. This was partly due to Guardiola's visionary coaching, partly due to an exceptional generation of players, many of whom had been schooled in La Masia's idiosyncratic style, and partly due to Barcelona's ability to sustain intense pressure on the ball.[14] The 2005 update to the offside law was also a contributing factor: by forcing defenders deeper, the law expanded the effective playing area, making players' size matter less and allowing technical skills to flourish.[15][14] Under Guardiola, Barcelona's tiki-taka shared Dutch Total Football's high defensive line, positional interchange, and use of possession to control the game. It departed from its Dutch roots by sublimating everything to the pass: Guardiola played a centre-forward as a false nine to keep the ball moving fluidly from different angles; he played the full-backs higher; he selected midfielders in defence to exploit their passing ability; and he forced the goalkeeper to play the ball out from the back.[14]

Raphael Honigstein describes the tiki-taka played by the Spanish national team at the 2010 World Cup as "a radical style that only evolved over the course of four years", arising from Spain's decision in 2006 that "they weren't physical and tough enough to outmuscle opponents, so instead wanted to concentrate on monopolising the ball."[16]

Jed C.Davies, football coach at Oxford University[17] and author of 'coaching the tiki-taka style of play'[18] believes that tiki-taka football is "among other things, a conceptual revolution based on the idea that the size of any football field is flexible and can be altered by the team playing on it. In possession, the formation should intend on creating space and therefore making the pitch as big as possible"[19] and the opposite when not in possession via Valeriy Lobanovskyi's full pitch aggressive pressing. Pep Guardiola is famed for saying "You win the ball back when there are thirty metres to their goal not eighty."[20]

Tactical overview

We have the same idea as each other. Keep the ball, create movement around and off the ball, get in the spaces to cause danger.

“
”

Tiki-taka is above all, a systems approach to football founded upon team unity and a comprehensive understanding in the geometry of space on a football field.[22]

Tiki-taka has been variously described as "a style of play based on making your way to the back of the net through short passing and movement,"[12] a "short passing style in which the ball is worked carefully through various channels,"[23] and a "nonsensical phrase that has come to mean short passing, patience and possession above all else."[24] The style involves roaming movement and positional interchange among midfielders, moving the ball in intricate patterns,[25] and sharp, one or two-touch passing.[21] Tiki-taka is "both defensive and offensive in equal measure" – the team is always in possession, so doesn't need to switch between defending and attacking.[16] Commentators have contrasted tiki-taka with "route one physicality"[12] and with the higher-tempo passing of Arsène Wenger's 2007–08 Arsenal side, which employed Cesc Fàbregas as the only channel between defence and attack.[23] Tiki-taka is associated with flair, creativity, and touch,[26] but can also be taken to a "slow, directionless extreme" that sacrifices effectiveness for aesthetics.[24]

Notable success

Spain, European champions in 2008.
Spain, World champions in 2010.
Spain, retaining European championship in 2012.

Tiki-taka has been used successfully by the Spanish national team to win Euro 2008, the 2010 World Cup and Euro 2012, and by Barcelona, which won six trophies in 2009 (including a Continental Treble, followed by the UEFA Super Cup, the Spanish Super Cup, and the FIFA Club World Cup). The formation also allowed them to win 2008–09 UEFA Champions League and 2010–11 UEFA Champions League.

Sid Lowe identifies Luis Aragonés' tempering of tiki-taka with pragmatism as a key factor in Spain's success in Euro 2008. Aragonés used tiki-taka to "protect a defense that appeared suspect [...], maintain possession and dominate games" without taking the style to "evangelical extremes." None of Spain's first six goals in the tournament came from tiki-taka: five came from direct breaks and one from a set play.[24] For Lowe, Spain's success in the 2010 World Cup was evidence of the meeting of two traditions in Spanish football: the "powerful, aggressive, direct" style that earned the silver medal-winning 1920 Antwerp Olympics team the nickname La Furia Roja ("The Red Fury"), and the tiki-taka style of the contemporary Spanish team, which focused on a collective, short-passing, technical and possession-based game.[27]

Analyzing Spain's semi-final victory over Germany at the 2010 World Cup, Honigstein described the Spanish team's tiki-taka style as "the most difficult version of football possible: an uncompromising passing game, coupled with intense, high pressing." For Honigstein, tiki-taka is "a significant upgrade" of Total Football because it relies on ball movement rather than players switching position. Tiki-taka allowed Spain to "control both the ball and the opponent."[16]

In women's football

At the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup, the Japan women's national football team (Nadeshiko) employed a form of tiki-taka under coach Norio Sasaki.[28] They upset hosts Germany and the United States to win the tournament.

Criticism

Spain defeated Portugal 1–0 in the Round of 16 at the World Cup in 2010, and were criticized by Portuguese national and then-Real Madrid manager José Mourinho for their "sterile" techniques.

Journalist Guy Hedgecoe from Iberosphere argued that Tiki-taka is not entertaining any more due to the lack of pure strikers in the Spanish national team and their use of a false '9' or a midfield player as a forward. This makes the game of football full of midfielders and no strikers or defenders. Hedgecoe claimed: "With no strikers, no defenders…no goalkeeper, perhaps, just 11 technically blessed midfielders merrily passing the ball around until someone walks it into the net".[29]

After Celtic's 2–1 defeat of FC Barcelona, under new manager Tito Vilanova, in the 2012–13 UEFA Champions League group stage in Glasgow; Ben Hayward, a reporter for ESPN and football website Goal.com, criticized Barcelona for their lack of attack and their inability to find "an attacking alternative when things were not going their way". Hayward pointed that the defeat was reminiscent of the game when Barcelona were unable to score against Chelsea, when the Blues defeated them by employing a set of predominately defensive tactics to win 1–0 in the semi-finals of the 2011–12 Champions League at Stamford Bridge.[30]

José Mourinho has criticised the Spanish national football team for using sterile techniques, such as having no strikers and only midfielders.[31] And Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger had said that the Spanish football team had changed their philosophy, less attacking and more negative saying: "Originally they wanted possession in order to attack and win the game; now it seems to be first and foremost a way not to lose" during Euro 2012, a competition Spain had won.[32] Others believe that this lack of emphasis on the offensive leads to fewer goals, and the endless passing is boring.[33]

Countering tiki-taka

The high-profile success of tiki-taka as practiced by Barcelona and the Spanish national team in the late 2000s led to a variety of tactics and formations designed to contain and counter the system's domination of ball possession.

The first team to defeat the Spanish national team in a tournament during the tiki-taka era was the United States, who eliminated Spain with a 2-0 victory in the semi-finals of the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup. USA coach Bob Bradley used a narrow and deep 4-4-2 designed to force Spain's possession to wide areas and draw the Spanish defense out of shape, creating space for counter-attacks which resulted in goals for Jozy Altidore and Clint Dempsey. Later, in their opening game of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, Spain were held to a 0-0 draw by Switzerland, with Swiss manager Ottmar Hitzfeld admitting following the match that he had been influenced by Bradley's tactics from the Confederations Cup.[34]

Guardiola's Barcelona faced 52 different teams and managed wins against all of them except Chelsea.[35][36][37] During the 2009 Champions League semi-finals, Chelsea, who were managed by Guus Hiddink, used a solid, compact, and communicating defence to force Barça to shoot outside the penalty area as well as having defender José Bosingwa, helped by center back John Terry and defensive midfilder Michael Essien, man-mark Lionel Messi. This worked as the first leg was a 0–0 draw at Camp Nou. The draw ensured Chelsea were the first visiting team that season to keep a clean sheet in Barça's home stadium. In the second leg Chelsea were up 1–0 until Andrés Iniesta scored in stoppage time to level the tie at 1–1 and let Barça advance on away goals.[38]

In the 2010 semi-finals of the Champions League, José Mourinho's Internazionale players denied Barça space as they double-marked Messi and prevented Xavi from achieving a successful passing rhythm. Inter won the first leg 3–1, and then lost 0–1 to advance on aggregate 3–2.[39] Mourinho would take over Real Madrid the next season and employ similar tactics, resulting in a bitter domestic rivalry with Guardiola over the following two years.

Chelsea manager Roberto Di Matteo succeeded in countering tiki-taka when his team met Barça in the semi-finals of the 2011–12 UEFA Champions League. According to Chelsea's Fernando Torres, concentrating on space rather than trying to steal the ball was part of his squad's strategy to counter Barça. Winning battles on the wings, such as Ramires against Daniel Alves, would force Barça to funnel their attacks toward the centre of the field. Former Chelsea winger Pat Nevin noted that stationing three disciplined midfielders in front of the back four defenders denied Barça space, forcing Lionel Messi to withdraw deeper and narrower to get to the ball (as Messi was high on the pitch, he was stripped of the ball by Chelsea's Frank Lampard, which led to a goal for the Blues in the first leg).[40] During the second leg, Di Matteo deployed a 4–5–1 formation with a very compact midfield structure. While Barça enjoyed 73% of ball possession over the two legs and 46 shots to Chelsea's 12 (11 of these shots on target versus Chelsea's 4). By contrast, Chelsea's Frank Lampard completed two telling passes in the two legs; both of them leading to goals. It has been suggested that Barça's weakness offensively is winning balls in the air, especially against a team like Chelsea that has the size and strength to control balls in the box.[41] Chelsea achieved a 1–0 victory in the first leg and a 2–2 tie in the second to overcome Barça.[42][43][44][45][46]

Tiki-taka's vulnerability was exposed when Bayern Munich defeated Barca with a score of 4–0 in the 2012–13 Champions League semi-finals and 3–0 in the return leg. Bayern Munich's head coach Jupp Heynckes had built upon his predecessor Louis van Gaal's foundations making the team more defensively balanced, while replacing Van Gaal's "positional football"—everyone had to stick to their specific space on the pitch when attacking the opposition goal—with a much more fluid and attacking style that gave the forwards freedom to roam and swap.[47] In the first leg, Barça enjoyed 63% possession but Bayern had 11 corners to Barcelona's 4 and had 9 shots on goal to Barça's 1.[48] Bayern's Bastian Schweinsteiger and Javi Martínez held a compact midfield that played crucial roles in shutting down the Blaugrana's Xavi Hernández and Andrés Iniesta attempts to pass forward at midfield, while Arjen Robben and Franck Ribéry proved effective on the wings.[49][50]

Bayern's first-half tactics involved "fake pressing", pushing close to their markers in possession to drive Barca away from danger areas with sheer presence, while conserving their energy by not committing themselves, keeping Bayern's players fresh enough for the second half to mount attacks.[51][52] Though they had managed to outscore lesser opponents, Barcelona's defense was vulnerable, as the absence of center-backs Carles Puyol and Javier Mascherano robbed the team of physical presence to guard against set pieces which Bayern exploited.[53][53][54][54] The Guardian proclaimed that "some suggested Bayern would attempt to outplay Barcelona at short passing football, but ultimately it was a perfect recipe of Barcelona's traditional problems: set pieces, counterattacks and physicality, that will lead many to suggest the balance of power has shifted from Catalonia to Bavaria."[49]

Tiki-taka was again exposed when Brazil defeated Spain 3–0 in the 2013 Confederations Cup final, ending Spain's run of 29 unbeaten matches in competitive football.[55][56] The ball possession was 47% for Brazil and 53% for Spain, with two goals conceded in the first half of the match. Spain fared even worse in the 2014 FIFA World Cup a year later as they lost to both the Netherlands and Chile and failed to progress beyond the group stage.

Diego Simeone's Atletico Madrid faced Barcelona six times in the 2013–14 season, managing to remain undefeated in all six matches. Simeone utilized a 4–4–1–1 formation, with Gabi and Tiago Mendes as the defensive midfielders, Koke and Arda Turan acting more like inside-midfielders than traditional wingers, Raul Garcia or David Villa often dropping deep to join the midfield, and Diego Costa as the lone striker up-front. In this formation, Simeone denied Barcelona their vital space in the midfield, rendering tiki-taka tactics useless against Atletico. Atletico also relied on their height advantage over the Barca players, with centre-backs Diego Godin and Miranda intercepting all Barcelona long-balls and often going forward when Atletico took a corner kick or free-kick. It is no coincidence that Godin scored Atletico's goal in the last league match against Barcelona, a header from a corner-kick, to give Simeone's team the league title. Atletico managed to eliminate Barcelona from the Champions League relying on these tactics.

Carlo Ancelotti's Real Madrid relied on positioning to force Pep Guardiola's Bayern Munich to defeat in the first semi-final leg of the 2013-14 UEFA Champions League at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium. Bayern, practicing a form of tiki-taka, pressed high in attack but was vulnerable in defence. Real Madrid's players strictly kept their positions when defending, and managed to score on a counter-attack, winning the first game by a 1–0 score. In the second leg in Munich, Bayern's defences were even more vulnerable, and Real Madrid managed a resounding 4–0 victory, their first ever away victory against Bayern, eliminating the Champions League holders.

In the 2014 FIFA World Cup, Dutch manager Louis van Gaal deployed a 5–3–2 formation against Spain in the first match of the group stage. This formation had Robin van Persie and Arjen Robben as strikers, a three-man midfield assisted by wing-backs Daryl Janmaat and Daley Blind, and a three-man defence. Spain managed to open the score from a controversial penalty won by Diego Costa and converted by Xabi Alonso, but the swift counter-attacks of the Netherlands proved highly effective in the rest of the match, resulting in a 5–1 victory for the Dutch, the worst defeat for Spain in 64 years. It is noteworthy that van Gaal was the manager of Barcelona in the 2002–03 season, the man mainly responsible for bringing up Xavi and Andres Iniesta, who went on to become basic elements of Barcelona and Spain's tiki-taka style.

In the second match of the group stage, the Chile national football team under Jorge Sampaoli used a fluidly changing 3–4–3 formation, evolving into a 5–3–2 when defending, and having their three central midfielders man-mark Spain's three central midfielders (Diaz on Silva, Aranguiz on Alonso, and Vidal on Busquets), a tactic previously used by influential coach Marcelo Bielsa. Chile managed to score twice in the first half, and Spain were unable to breach their opponents five-man defence, exiting the World Cup in a very early stage. Spain's disastrous 2014 campaign and Barcelona's move to a more direct style under managers Gerardo Martino and Luis Enrique has led many to believe that the tiki-taka era has ended.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Davies, Jed C. (25 July 2012). "The tiki taka handbook". Liverpool F.C. (Liverpool). Retrieved 23 July 2014.
  2. ↑ Davies, Jed C. (3 June 2012). "The tiki taka handbook". Liverpool F.C. (Liverpool). Retrieved 23 July 2014.
  3. ↑ Davies, Jed C. (3 June 2012). "The tiki taka handbook". Liverpool F.C. (Liverpool). Retrieved 23 July 2014.
  4. ↑ Hawkey, Ian (18 October 2009). "Spain's voice of football dies". The Sunday Times.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Lavric, Eva (2008). The linguistics of football. Gunter Narr Verlag. p. 354. ISBN 978-3-8233-6398-9.
  6. ↑ Diez, Ramón (29 January 2006). "La imaginación de la Deportiva se topa hoy con el autobús de Fabri". Diario de León (in Spanish).
  7. ↑ "La polemica – Posible penalti de Cáceres a Magno – El Celta sonó... al ritmo de Vagner – El Alavés ...". MARCA (in Spanish). 31 March 2002.
  8. ↑ Lesay, Jean-Damien (30 June 2006). "'Tiki-taka'". Libération Cahier Spécial (in French).
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Martínez, Roberto (11 July 2010). "World Cup final: Johan Cruyff sowed seeds for revolution in Spain's fortunes". Telegraph.co.uk (London). Retrieved 13 July 2010.
  10. ↑ "Spain's World Cup run has Dutch flavour". CBC.ca. 9 July 2010. Retrieved 13 July 2010.
  11. ↑ Kay, Alex (27 March 2010). "Lionel Messi, Cesc Fabregas, Gerard Pique...all forged in Barcelona's hothouse of champions". Daily Mail (London). Retrieved 13 July 2010.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 Marcotti, Gabriele (14 April 2008). "New coaching breed gives heart to Spain". The Times (London). Retrieved 23 May 2013.
  13. ↑ "The quiet man finds his voice". FourFourTwo. 1 July 2008.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 Wilson, Jonathan (1 May 2014). "The Question: is this the end for tiki-taka?". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 July 2014.
  15. ↑ Wilson, Jonathan (13 April 2010). "The Question: Why is the modern offside law a work of genius?". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 July 2014.
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 Honigstein, Raphael (8 July 2010). "Why Spain were anything but boring". CBC.ca. Retrieved 13 July 2010.
  17. ↑ Reade, Phil (3 June 2012). "Rodgers and 'Tiki Taka' – part two". Liverpool F.C. (Liverpool). Retrieved 31 July 2012.
  18. ↑ Davies, Jed (3 June 2013). "coaching the tiki-taka style of play". Soccertutor (London). Retrieved 31 July 2013.
  19. ↑ Davies, Jed C. (24 July 2012). "An Introduction To A Systems Football Approach Part II: Positioning". The Path is Made By Walking (London). Retrieved 31 July 2012.
  20. ↑ Davies, Jed C. (24 July 2012). "The tiki taka handbook: part two". The Path is Made By Walking (London). Retrieved 31 July 2012.
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 Ladyman, Ian (8 July 2010). "Beat Spain? It's hard enough to get the ball back, say defeated Germany". London: Mail Online. Retrieved 13 July 2010.
  22. ↑ Davies, Jed C. (16 July 2012). "Systems Football: The Basics – Tiki-Taka / Totaal-Voetball". EPLindex (London). Retrieved 31 July 2012.
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 Hynter, David (10 June 2008). "Fábregas takes positive view, from the bench". The Guardian (London). Retrieved 13 July 2010.
  24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 24.2 Lowe, Sid (2 July 2008). "The definitive story of how Aragonés led Spain to Euro 2008 glory". The Guardian (London). Retrieved 13 July 2010.
  25. ↑ Pearce, Jonathan (29 June 2008). "If Spain can reign it will be so good for the old game". Sunday Mirror. Retrieved 13 July 2010.
  26. ↑ Clegg, Jonathan; Espinoza, Javier (31 March 2010). "Fantasy football comes alive". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 13 July 2010.
  27. ↑ Lowe, Sid (9 July 2010). "Spain's "Tiki-taka" style dominates". SI.com. Retrieved 13 July 2010.
  28. ↑ Ashdown, John (4 July 2011). "Hope Powell's England need cool heads in the heat of World Cup battle". The Guardian. Retrieved 3 May 2014.
  29. ↑ "Why I no longer love Spain's tiki-taka". 2012-06-26.
  30. ↑ "The Chelsea semi-final all over again – Celtic defeat proves that Barcelona still have not found a Plan B". 2012-11-08.
  31. ↑ "Sterile Spain". 2012-10-06.
  32. ↑ "Spain pass too much". The Daily Telegraph (London). 2012-01-07.
  33. ↑ Smyth, Rob (2012-06-30). "Euro 2012: Spain wear tag of boring for lack of excitement and goals". The Guardian (London).
  34. ↑ Steven Goff (18 June 2010). "Switzerland credits U.S. for its upset of Spain". Washington Post (Washington Post). Retrieved 16 April 2015.
  35. ↑ Daniel Taylor (23 April 2012). "Chelsea required to better perfection to handle Barcelona's backlash". The Guardian (London). Retrieved 8 July 2012.
  36. ↑ "Messi's Chelsea jinx continues". Mid-Day. Mid-Day Infomedia Ltd. 26 April 2012. Retrieved 8 July 2012.
  37. ↑ Steven Bloor (24 April 2012). "Champions League: Barcelona v Chelsea – in pictures". The Guardian (London). Retrieved 8 July 2012.
  38. ↑ Jason Burt (24 April 2012). "Chelsea ride their luck with 'blue angel' sitting on their goal taunting Barcelona's Lionel Messi". The Telegraph (London: Telegraph Media Group Limited). Retrieved 8 July 2012.
  39. ↑ Jonathan Stevenson (20 April 2010). "Inter Milan 3 – 1 Barcelona". BBC Sport- Football (BBC). Retrieved 8 July 2012.
  40. ↑ Alistair Magowan (23 April 2012). "Chelsea can prey on Barcelona's weaknesses". BBC Football Tactics Blog. BBC. Retrieved 8 July 2012.
  41. ↑ Frank Isola (25 April 2012). "Frank Isola: Lionel Messi failed to step up in the biggest games of the season". Goal.com. Goal.com. Retrieved 8 July 2012.
  42. ↑ Roger Bogunyà (25 April 2012). "Chelsea vs FC Barcelona: 12 shots to 46 over both legs". Catalan News Agency. Intracatalònia, SA. Retrieved 8 July 2012.
  43. ↑ Matt Barlow (4 May 2012). "Why injured Di Matteo was Ranieri's team leader in Cup clash with Arsenal". Mail Online (London: Associated Newspapers Ltd). Retrieved 8 July 2012.
  44. ↑ Phil McNulty (18 April 2012). "Chelsea 1- 0 Barcelona". BBC Football. BBC. Retrieved 8 July 2012.
  45. ↑ Matt Lawton (April). "Barcelona 2 Chelsea 2 (agg 2–3): Salute the incredibles! Terry off, 2–0 down but brave Blues hit back to reach final". Mail Online (London: Associated Newspapers Ltd). Retrieved 8 July 2012. Check date values in: |date= (help)
  46. ↑ Debjit Lahiri (30 April 2012). "Defensive solidity is as 'beautiful' as the fancy tiki-taka: Why is it not right to condemn Chelsea's approach against Barcelona". Goal.com. Goal.com. Retrieved 8 July 2012.
  47. ↑
  48. ↑
  49. ↑ 49.0 49.1 Cox, Michael (23 April 2013). "Javi Martínez the key weapon as Bayern cut Barcelona down to size". The Guardian (London).
  50. ↑
  51. ↑
  52. ↑
  53. ↑ 53.0 53.1
  54. ↑ 54.0 54.1 Taylor, Daniel (23 April 2013). "Bayern Munich crush Barcelona with Thomas Müller leading the rout". The Guardian (London).
  55. ↑ "Fred and Neymar claim Confeds for Brazil". FIFA.com. July 1, 2013. Retrieved July 1, 2013.
  56. ↑ "Brazil defeats Spain to win Confederations Cup". CBC. June 30, 2013. Retrieved July 1, 2013.