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Tiki-taka

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Tiki-taka (commonly spelled tiqui-taca in Spanish; Spanish pronunciation: [ˈtiki ˈtaka] ) is a style of play in association football that has evolved from Total Football[1] and is characterised by short passing and movement, working the ball through various channels, and maintaining possession. The style is primarily associated with La Liga club FC Barcelona and the Spanish national team under managers Luis Aragonés and Vicente del Bosque and also Pep Guardiola, former manager of FC Barcelona. Tiki-taka moves away from the traditional thinking of formations in football to a concept derived from zonal play.[2][3][4]

Origins

 
Spanish midfield position. Spain–Switzerland, FIFA World Cup 2010. Midfield is one of the keys of tiki-taka.

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 FIFA World Cup,[5][6] although the term was already in colloquial use in Spanish football[7] and may originate with Javier Clemente.[8] 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."[6] The phrase's origin may be onomatopoeic[6] (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).[9]

The roots of what later would become known as tiki-taka lay in the style of play propagated and implemented by Johan Cruyff during his tenure as manager of Barcelona from 1988 to 1996. It continued to develop under Barcelona's Dutch coaches Louis van Gaal and Frank Rijkaard and was subsequently adopted by other La Liga teams[10][11] such as Villarreal CF under coaches Manuel Pellegrini and Juan Carlos Garrido.[citation needed] Barcelona's tiki-taka tradition led to greater success for the team during Josep Guardiola's managerial tenure from 2008 to 2012, and the system has been credited with producing a generation of technically talented, often physically-small, players such as Xavi, Andrés Iniesta, and Lionel Messi;[12][13] players with excellent touch, vision and passing, who excel at maintaining possession.[14]

Raphael Honigstein describes the tiki-taka played by the Spanish national team at the 2010 FIFA 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."[15]

Jed C.Davies, football coach[16] and author of 'the tiki-taka handbook'[2] 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"[17] 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."[18]

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.

—Xabi Alonso (Spanish midfielder)[19]

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.[20]

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,"[13] a "short passing style in which the ball is worked carefully through various channels,"[21] and a "nonsensical phrase that has come to mean short passing, patience and possession above all else."[22] The style involves roaming movement and positional interchange amongst midfielders, moving the ball in intricate patterns,[23] and sharp, one or two-touch passing.[19] 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.[15] Commentators have contrasted tiki-taka with "route one physicality"[13] 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.[21] Tiki-taka is associated with flair, creativity, and touch,[24] but can also be taken to a "slow, directionless extreme" that sacrifices effectiveness for aesthetics.[22]

Notable successes

Tiki-taka has been used successfully by the Spanish national team to win UEFA Euro 2008, 2010 FIFA World Cup and UEFA Euro 2012, and by FC Barcelona, which won six trophies in 2008-09 (including a Continental Treble, followed by the UEFA Super Cup, the Spanish Super Cup, and the FIFA Club World Cup), and 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.[22] 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.[25]

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."[15]

In the 11/12 season of the Premier League the newly promoted side Swansea saw great success with their Tiki-Taka style of play. Despite having a roster not on the level of most opposing teams in the league they managed an impressive 11th place finish, with impressive victories over such notable clubs as Arsenal, Manchester City and Liverpool and recording draws against Tottenham, Chelsea and Newcastle. Swansea were celebrated for their attacking style of play that is not usually attributed to lower table teams and newly promoted sides.

Criticism

Managers like Arsene Wenger and José Mourinho has criticised the Spanish national football team for using sterile techniques, such as having no strikers and only midfielders.[26] [27] Others believe that this lack of emphasis on the offensive leads to fewer goals, and the endless passing is boring.[28] Journalist like Guy Hedgecoe from Iberosphere argues that Tiki-taka is not entertaining anymore due to the lack of pure strikers in Spanish national team and their use of a false '9' or a midfield player as a forward. This makes the game of football with full of midfielders and no strikers or defenders. Hedgecoe claims, "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]

Countering tiki-taka

Pep Guardiola's Barcelona using tiki-taka faced 52 different teams and managed wins against all of them except Chelsea,[30] while Lionel Messi has not scored against Chelsea in eight UEFA Champions League matches (including a missed penalty spot kick in the second leg of the semi-final in 2012).[31][32] During the 2009 Champions League semi-finals, Chelsea, which was managed at the time by Guus Hiddink, used solid defence to force Barça to shoot outside the penalty area as well as having defender José Bosingwa mark Lionel Messi. This worked as the first leg was a 0–0 draw at Camp Nou, Chelsea being the first visiting team that season to keep a clean sheet in Barça's home stadium. In the second leg, however, marred by controversial refereeing, Chelsea had several penalty appeals turned down, then Andrés Iniesta scored in stoppage time to level the tie at 1–1 and let Barça advance on away goals.[33]

Chelsea manager Roberto Di Matteo used an ultra-defensive tactic to counter the tiki-taka passing 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).[34] 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), they only managed to score twice (the second goal scored after Chelsea's captain John Terry had been sent off for an off-the-ball foul on Alexis Sánchez) as "Chelsea parked the bus in front" of the net. By contrast, Chelsea's Frank Lampard completed two telling passes in the two legs; both of them, however, led 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, but Guardiola did not deploy central defender and team captain Carles Puyol forward to counter this.[35] Chelsea achieved a 1–0 victory in the first leg and a 2–2 tie in the second to overcome Barça.[36][37][38][39][40]

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.[41]

Spain have faced Portugal three times since the first reference to the Spanish national team utilising tiki taka:

  • In the 2010 World Cup, Spain won 1-0.[42][43]
  • In November 2010 Portugal won 4-0 in a friendly match, which was Spain's largest defeat by any team for 47 years.[44]

See also

References

  1. ^ Davies, Jed C. (24 July 2012). "The tiki taka handbook". The Path is Made By Walking. London. Retrieved 31 July 2012.
  2. ^ a b Davies, Jed C. (24 July 2012). "The tiki taka handbook". The Path is Made By Walking. London. Retrieved 31 July 2012.
  3. ^ Davies, Jed C. (3 June 2012). "The tiki taka handbook". Liverpool FC. Liverpool. Retrieved 31 July 2012.
  4. ^ Davies, Jed C. (3 June 2012). "The tiki taka handbook". Liverpool FC. Liverpool. Retrieved 31 July 2012.
  5. ^ Hawkey, Ian (18 October 2009). "Spain's voice of football dies". The Sunday Times.
  6. ^ a b c Lavric, Eva (2008). The linguistics of football. Gunter Narr Verlag. p. 354. ISBN 978-3-8233-6398-9.
  7. ^ Diez, Ramón (29 January 2006). "La imaginación de la Deportiva se topa hoy con el autobús de Fabri". Diario de León (in Spanish).
  8. ^ "La polemica – Posible penalti de Cáceres a Magno – El Celta sonó... al ritmo de Vagner – El Alavés ...". MARCA (in Spanish). 31 March 2002.
  9. ^ Lesay, Jean-Damien (30 June 2006). "'Tiki-taka'". Libération Cahier Spécial (in French).
  10. ^ 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.
  11. ^ "Spain's World Cup run has Dutch flavour". CBC.ca. 9 July 2010. Retrieved 13 July 2010.
  12. ^ 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.
  13. ^ a b c Marcotti, Gabriele (14 April 2008). "New coaching breed gives heart to Spain". The Times. London. Retrieved 18 October 2010.
  14. ^ "The quiet man finds his voice". FourFourTwo. 1 July 2008.
  15. ^ a b c Honigstein, Raphael (8 July 2010). "Why Spain were anything but boring". CBC.ca. Retrieved 13 July 2010.
  16. ^ Reade, Phil (3 June 2012). "Rodgers and 'Tiki Taka' - part two". Liverpool FC. Liverpool. Retrieved 31 July 2012.
  17. ^ 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.
  18. ^ Davies, Jed C. (24 July 2012). "The tiki taka handbook: part two". The Path is Made By Walking. London. Retrieved 31 July 2012.
  19. ^ a b 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.
  20. ^ Davies, Jed C. (16 July 2012). "Systems Football: The Basics – Tiki-Taka / Totaal-Voetball". EPLindex. London. Retrieved 31 July 2012.
  21. ^ a b Hynter, David (10 June 2008). "Fábregas takes positive view, from the bench". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 13 July 2010.
  22. ^ a b c Lowe, Sid (2 July 2008). "The definitive story of how Aragonés led Spain to Euro 2008 glory". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 13 July 2010.
  23. ^ Pearce, Jonathan (29 June 2008). "If Spain can reign it will be so good for the old game". Sunday Mirror. Retrieved 13 July 2010.
  24. ^ Clegg, Jonathan; Espinoza, Javier (31 March 2010). "Fantasy football comes alive". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 13 July 2010.
  25. ^ Lowe, Sid (9 July 2010). "Spain's "Tiki-taka" style dominates". SI.com. Retrieved 13 July 2010.
  26. ^ "Spain pass too much". 2012-01-07.
  27. ^ "Sterile Spain". 2012-10-06.
  28. ^ Smyth, Rob (2012-06-30). "Euro 2012: Spain wear tag of boring for lack of excitement and goals". The Guardian. London.
  29. ^ "Why I no longer love Spain's tiki-taka". 2012-26-06. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  30. ^ Daniel Taylor (23). "Chelsea required to better perfection to handle Barcelona's backlash". The Guardian. London: Guardian News and Media Limited. Retrieved 8 July 2012. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  31. ^ "Messi's Chelsea jinx continues". Mid-Day. Mid-Day Infomedia Ltd. 26. Retrieved 8 July 2012. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  32. ^ Steven Bloor (24). "Champions League: Barcelona v Chelsea - in pictures". The Guardian. London: Guardian News and Media Limited. Retrieved 8 July 2012. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  33. ^ Jason Burt (24). "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. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  34. ^ Alistair Magowan (23). "Chelsea can prey on Barcelona's weaknesses". BBC Football Tactics Blog. BBC. Retrieved 8 July 2012. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  35. ^ Frank Isola (25). "Frank Isola: Lionel Messi failed to step up in the biggest games of the season". Goal.com. Goal.com. Retrieved 8 July 2012. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  36. ^ Roger Bogunyà (25). "Chelsea vs FC Barcelona: 12 shots to 46 over both legs". Catalan News Agency. Intracatalònia, SA. Retrieved 8 July 2012. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  37. ^ Matt Barlow (4). "Why injured Di Matteo was Ranieri's team leader in Cup clash with Arsenal". Mail Online. London: Associated Newspapers Ltd. Retrieved 8 July 2012. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  38. ^ Phil McNulty (18). "Chelsea 1- 0 Barcelona". BBC Football. BBC. Retrieved 8 July 2012. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  39. ^ 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. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  40. ^ Debjit Lahiri (30). "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. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  41. ^ Jonathan Stevenson (20). "Inter Milan 3 - 1 Barcelona". BBC Sport- Football. BBC. Retrieved 8 July 2012. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  42. ^ Paul Madden (3). "World Cup 2010: Argentina coach Diego Maradona claims 'horrible' refereeing helped Spain beat Portugal". Goal.com. Goal.com. Retrieved 8 July 2012. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  43. ^ Tom Kundert (25). "Why Portugal will not fear Spain". UEFA Euro 2012. http://espnfc.com. Retrieved 8 July 2012. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help); External link in |publisher= (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  44. ^ "Rampant Portugal inflict Spain's biggest defeat for 47 years". The Guardian. London: Guardian News and Media Limited. 18. Retrieved 8 July 2012. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
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