What is Tiki Taka?

One of the most important football tactics of modern age goes by the name of ‘Tiki-Taka’. In simple layman terms – the word Tiki-Taka means a simple passing style of football where a team progresses in their attacks playing short passes even while maintaining possession.

Remember Spain National team’s football from 2006 to 2010? That is what essentially tiki-taka meant. While people often associate tiki-taka with Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona, the Spanish tactician has countless times refuted the claim saying Barcelona never deployed actual methods.

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What is Tiki Taka?

Play short passes, maintain position, exchange simple and intricate one-two’s, progress forward without losing the ball and pressing the opponent lines is what Tiki-Taka essentially means. But it is not as simple as it sounds. If we take a look at the teams that have been successful using Tiki-taka, it essentially deployed a 4-3-3 formation or one of it’s variant.

Possession based dominance with simple passing game can also be referred to as tiki-taka. And this has been reflected in both Spain and Barcelona’s dominance in the late 2010s. The Catalan club had one of it’s greatest glory days during the phase while La Roja won the Euro 2008 and the FIFA World Cup 2010 and then Euro 2012.

Formation of Tiki Taka

Tiki-Taka has it’s root from the ‘Total Football’ of the 1970s. This special system was extensively used by Ajax and the Netherlands team in 1970s under the great Johan Cruyff. Following which Barcelona too in the late 1980s used a similar system under the Dutch manager.

Cruyff’s predecessors like Frank Rijkaard and Louis Van Gaal took inspiration from Total Football to develop their own system and style of Tiki-Taka. It should however be noted that Total Football was invented by Rinus Michels and then later on made popular by Johan Cruyff. And Tiki-taka has it’s roots from Total football.

Which Teams have used Tiki Taka?

While a lot of teams use tiki-taka traditionally in some of their gameplay movements, not entirely. But it will always be Spain and Barcelona in the opening decade of 2000s who made the game style extremely popular.

The first success came in form of Spain when La Roja lifted the Euro 2008 under manger Luis Aragonés. And then the Spanish Football Team went on to lift the 2010 FIFA World Cup and the Euro 2012 under veteran manager Vicente del Bosque.

As for Barcelona, under Pep Guardiola, Barcelona went on to achieve the sextuple in the 2009 season.

How is Tiki Taka used in Football?

To understand the concept of tiki-taka, the proper 4-3-3 style of gameplay needs to be understood. First and foremost all the players in the team need to be good passers. That is the primary requirement. Under the 4-3-3 style of gameplay, a higher defensive line is used to optimize the offside trap.

When the team is without possession, the defenders snatch the ball and rather than going for a long ball forward to the attackers. The defenders try to find space and exchange passes amongst their fellow defenders. The midfielders too drop deep to help the defenders and become the focal point in initiating the attack.

Tiki-taka may look mechanical, but it is not. In fact it thrives under the creativity and instant thinking of the players. The midfielders often use the wide players to exchange passes before vertically moving forward. Though Barcelona used Messi as a false nine, Spain however had proper strikers in the form of David Silva and Fernando Torres.

The final move essentially came in the form of a through ball that broke through the opponent defense. Only to find the striker in the opponent box to tap it into the back of the net.

Football