Tiki-taka (, ) 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 the Spain national team since 2006 under the managers Luis Aragonés and Vicente del Bosque. Tiki-taka methods were eventually embraced by the La Liga club Barcelona from 2009, especially during the era of manager Pep Guardiola.
Predecessors
Earlier tactics that, like tiki-taka, rose to success in their times by stressing passing and movement without the ball include the Schalker Kreisel ("Schalke spinning top") system employed by Schalke 04 that used quick and short passing to confuse and overwhelm the opponent, winning six German championships between 1934 and 1942, and the Total Football used by Ajax and the Dutch national team during the 1970s.
Manager Angelo Niculescu adopted a Temporizare ("delaying") style, which is also considered a precursor of tiki-taka, with the Romania national football team. The team would try to keep possession of the ball for as long as possible, using repeated and short passes until a breach in the opposition defense was found. Using this tactic, he transformed the Romanian national team and took them to the 1970 FIFA World Cup in Mexico after a 32-year absence. In 2011 FIFA named Niculescu the inventor of the tiki-taka style of play as did UEFA in 2014.
Origins and development
Etymology
The 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, although the term was already in colloquial use in Spain's football and may have originated as a critical or derogatory term by then Athletic Bilbao coach Javier Clemente. 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" ("we are playing tiki-taka tiki-taka").
Barcelona
Johan Cruyff introduced the elements of what came to be known as tiki-taka during his tenure as manager of Barcelona from 1988 to 1996. The style of play continued to develop under fellow Dutch managers Louis van Gaal and Frank Rijkaard and has been adopted by other La Liga teams. 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 Pedro, Xavi, Andrés Iniesta, Cesc Fàbregas and Lionel Messi; players with excellent touch, vision and passing, who excel at maintaining possession.
Pep Guardiola managed Barcelona from 2008 to 2012, winning 14 titles. Under his guidance, tiki-taka was established. 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. 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. The tactic shared Dutch Total Football's principles of high defensive line, positional interchange and use of possession to control the game. Tiki-taka diverged from its Total Football roots by subordinating 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.
The guiding principle of this type of play was efficient use of space. The teams must narrow the playing space while defending, and must expand the playing space wider while attacking. The objective was to make quick and short passes, till an opponent was caught out of position and space was created. Guardiola also used the concept of positional play, which in simple words mean that the pitch is divided into different zones, and that no more than two players must occupy the same line vertically and no more than three players should occupy the same line horizontally. Guardiola trained his players by painting lines on the training ground to show players what the zones were. This training made it an instinct of the players to find zones where they can receive or play a pass. Thus, for a layman, it would have look like passing and keeping possession, it was actually quite calculated.
Spain national team
Raphael Honigstein describes the tiki-taka played by the Spain 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." Luis Aragonés and Vicente del Bosque successfully employed the tiki-taka style with the Spain national team; during their tenure, Spain won three consecutive major titles: Euro 2008 (under Aragonés), the 2010 FIFA World Cup, and Euro 2012 (under del Bosque). Who's the Bosque?
Tactical overview
Tiki-taka is founded upon team unity and a comprehensive understanding in the geometry of space on a football field.
Pep Guardiola's example of tiki-taka at Barcelona is considered the best application of this style after they won the sextuple in 2009. Barcelona played with a high defensive line usually applying the offside trap with midfielders providing support to defenders to make more passing options available. Defenders are patient, preferring safe pass options looking for midfielders with the ball circulated anywhere on the pitch waiting for a gap to make a vertical pass. The team created most of its chances by depending on through balls and executing give and go passes, usually with Lionel Messi involved in the action. Guardiola preferred freedom in the final third of the pitch, which was effective as the team created many chances per match.
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," a "short passing style in which the ball is worked carefully through various channels," and a "nonsensical phrase that has come to mean short passing, patience and possession above all else." The style involves roaming movement and positional interchange among midfielders, moving the ball in intricate patterns, and sharp, one- or two-touch passing. Tiki-taka is "both defensive and offensive in equal measure" – the team is always in possession, so does not need to switch between defending and attacking. Commentators have contrasted tiki-taka with "route one physicality" 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. Tiki-taka is associated with flair, creativity and touch, but can also be taken to a "slow, directionless extreme" that sacrifices effectiveness for aesthetics.
The positioning of players in triangles provides the player in possession with multiple passing options. These passing structures allow the ball to be circulated through short combinations, while players continually adjust their positions to create new passing angles.
Tiki-taka also involves immediate pressure after possession is lost. Players close down the ball following a turnover in an attempt to regain possession before the opposition can organise an attack. The positioning of players close to the ball during the possession phase can facilitate this pressure when possession changes.
Notable success
Tiki-taka has been used successfully by the Spain national team, first under Luis Aragonés to win Euro 2008, and subsequently under Vicente del Bosque to win the 2010 World Cup and Euro 2012. It was also used to great success by Barcelona under Pep Guardiola between 2008 and 2012; his team won six trophies in 2009 (including a Continental Treble of La Liga, the Copa del Rey, and the 2008–09 UEFA Champions League, followed by the UEFA Super Cup, the Spain Super Cup, and the FIFA Club World Cup). The team's attacking, possession-based tiki-taka tactics and 4–3–3 formation also allowed them to win two more consecutive La Liga titles, as well as the 2010–11 UEFA Champions League, among other trophies.
While Luis Enrique adopted a faster and more direct tactical approach during his tenure as Barcelona's manager, he also used some similar aspects of tiki-taka, such as an exciting, attack–minded, possession–based passing game, and building plays from the back on the ground, while instead successfully modifying other elements of his team's gameplay, and abandoning the use of long balls that had characterised Tata Martino's spell with the team. He led Barcelona to a second continental treble during the 2014–15 season, capturing La Liga, the Copa del Rey, and the 2014–15 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. For Lowe, Spain's success in the 2010 World Cup was evidence of the meeting of two traditions in Spain's 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 Spain team, which focused on a collective, short-passing, technical and possession-based game.
Analyzing Spain's semi-final victory over Germany at the 2010 World Cup, Honigstein described the 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."
At the 2011 Women's World Cup, the Japan women's national football team (Nadeshiko) employed a form of tiki-taka under coach Norio Sasaki. They upset hosts Germany and the United States to win the tournament.
Criticism
While the tiki-taka style has been praised by several pundits and footballing figures, due to its success and attacking approach, it has also been criticised at times. During Euro 2012, for example, the Spain national side drew criticism in the media for adopting a striker-less formation and a dull brand of tiki-taka, which produced relatively few goals, despite the team dominating possession throughout the tournament, with Spain averaging 63% ball possession during their three group matches; in the lead–up to their final victory, Spain averaged 58 passes per shot, and only 1.8 goals per match, which was 25% lower than the tournament average of 2.4. Journalist Guy Hedgecoe from Iberosphere argued that tiki-taka is not entertaining any more due to the lack of pure strikers in the Spain 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".