*Yes, I know this is my 4th straight post about soccer. First off, I feel that it fits since this is primarily a football blog. Second, there are some really interesting developments going on right now (that and the Zizou piece was a total one-off that was related to nothing). In the end, as the calendar turns to May there will be a lot more on the NBA and NHL playoffs, but for now, futbol rules the roost*
Ahead of the 2014 World Cup, World Football is entering an interesting time. We have our great players, our great teams, but maybe more than anytime since the heyday of Total Football, great tactics seem to be the largest topic in the sport. This tactical revolution is rooted in Total Football, but really starts with one man, a man who conquered the football world, then was conquered by it, and is now trying to do it all over again. The problem, for Pep Guardiola, is the cycle is a lot faster this time.
Tiki-Taka football was not invented by Pep Guardiola's Barcelona teams. They just perfected it, a style of intricate short passing, and movement, preached to players at Barcelona from their earliest days in La Masia to the elder statesmen on the club. It worked wonderfully during Guardiola's reign at Barca, concluding in four La Liga titles, and two Champions League wins. It helped that Pep had Leo Messi and helped further that he had Xavi and Iniesta, two of the smartest, most brilliant passers the sport has seen.
Pep's Barcelona team changed the way we look at football. When he first unleashed it on the world, most really in the 2009-10 season (as in the 2008-09 season they still blended some more conventional tactics with using Henry as a true #9, and Eto'o alongside him - evidenced by them barely winning time of possession in the final against Manchester United), no one was really ready to see possession splits of 70-30, but Barcelona did it. They were able to retain possession, pass the ball around until a defender got out of his lane, and then instantly recognize it, catch the mistake, feed the ball and score. It was a simple system, but they ran it at a PhD level.
Like in all sports, it seems offenses are ahead of defenses, but only for so long. Eventually, teams kind of figured it out. The main teams to do it early on all had a common tie: Jose Mourinho, and all had a stylistic tie of 'parking the bus', The first team roundly criticized for this defensive tactic was Chelsea in teh 2009 Champions League Semifinal, a tie they should have won if Tom Henning Ovrebo gave one of four very legitimate, some absurdly obvious, penalty appeals to Chelsea in the 2nd leg. In the first leg, Chelsea played 10 men behind the ball, and anytime they got possession, they just kicked it the length of the field and told Barcelona to start the tiki-taka process over again. What was their result: they became the first team that season to hold Barca scoreless at the Camp Nou.
The first team to expose Barca was Inter Milan in 2010, coached by Jose Mourinho. They did much of the same that Chelsea did, losing the possession battle 65-35, but countered so ruthlessly they won the first leg 3-1, and could have won it 5-1 with better finishing. Mourinho's Real Madrid teams over time did the same thing and got better at it. They only once lost to Barcelona by more than a goal (a 5-0 loss where they tried to play with Barcelona), and drew the plurality of their games against each other.
Finally, there was last year's nadir for tiki-taka, when Bayern Munich, despite losing the possession battle 68-32 and 65-35 in the two legs, won 7-0 on aggregate, attempted way more shots on goal, and even won more corners. They cracked the code. Of course, at that point Pep Guardiola was already hired to take over from a (forced-into-an-early) retiring Jupp Heynckes, so in one year Bayern became essentially the same version of the team they beat 7-0, and guess what, despite historic domestic success (never a problem at Barcelona), they've struggled in Europe.
The antithesis to all of this is the 'parking the bus' phenomenon. I didn't follow soccer as much pre-Big-4 era in England (started earnestly in 04-05), but the first time I heard the phrase was regarding Chelsea in 2009. I heard it much more with Inter Milan, especially when Barca players essentially accused Inter of doing it, and then in how teams tried to attack Spain in that World Cup. It's never really left the sport's lexicon, but it has become more and more apparent: it is the best, and arguably only true, way to successfully play a tiki-taka team, and it's gone from being something to an act of desperation, to a legitimate strategy to have a better than 50-50 chance of beating them.
The key to beating Barca, or what Bayern has become, is defend like hell. Well, that conversely, becomes easier the more you give up possession. If you clog passing lanes, the other team retains possession but it makes it harder for them to do anything like it. The more you deny them easy passing lanes, the more people they bring forward, and then the easier it is to counter-attack against a out-of-place defense. It is a beautiful little push-pull equation that works best when parking the bus. Case in point is the most recent two examples, Athletico's 1-0 win over Barcelona knocking them out of the Champions League, and Real Madrid's 1-0 win over Bayern which pushes the defenders to the brink.
In both games, the losing team had more tan 70% of possession, despite playing the game on the road. Also, in both games, the losing team had fewer shots on goal. In both games, the loser, the one with all the possession could have easily lost far worse. In both games, the winning team 'parked the bus' (though Athletico presses more than most), but was ruthless going forward when they could. In fact, Real Madrid is probably the best in the world at it, with four skilled attacking players that make any counter instantly terrifying. They are a perfect Carlo Ancelotti team, and a perfect foil to the tiki-taka.
Pep Guardiola has come under fire at Bayern, despite the dominant domestic season, due to the struggles in Europe. And there's good reason for it. Tiki-Taka is a very foreign type of play in Germany, whose style is mostly straight attacking and defense. Tiki-taka was also the style that was so thoroughly dominated by the best version of the German style last year in the Semifinals. True, Pep Guardiola was not the coach of Barcelona last year, but that didn't matter. It was still Pep's style (and in Tito Villanova, his right-hand man coaching the team), and Bayern destroyed it, countering with such ruthless effectiveness they beat Barca by a worse score than Barca beat anyone else in the Messi era.
Pep inherited that team, but placed on it his style. Because the style works to some degree, and because Bayern is talented enough, they still dominated in Germany, but now that they're playing a team that is built to beat Tiki-Taka, people are calling for Pep to lay off imposing Tiki-Taka values on this powerful Bavarian machine. And I can see why, just like Real Madrid is now, Bayern is built, on personnel, like a team that should not be playing tiki-taka but anhillating it. Their strength on offense is not intricate passing and triangles and piercing through balls. Apart from Ribery, and possibly Toni Kroos, Bayern does not have those players. Bayern has players that have talents in speed, size and attack.
Pep's style has negated the effectiveness of Mario Mandzukic, Thomas Muller, Mario Goetze, and, most worrying, Bastian Schweinsteiger. Pep's style is forcing those players to play to something that isn't their strength. It still could work, and I'm a little hasty in writing this as Bayern is still very much alive in next week's return leg, but signs that Pep may already be wearing out his welcome at Bayern is a sign of the growing acceptance of tiki-taka not being the best possible way to play.
Like any sport, the tactical evolution of football is always changing. When tiki-taka first came about, it was overwhelming on opponents. No one came close to Spain in the 2008 Euro and 2010 World Cup, same with Barcelona in 2009 or 2011 (with Inter being the one example). Soon, the other side adjusted, playing smarter and more efficient, conceding more and more possession if it led to aimless passing and greater opportunities to counter with a numbers advantage. Soon, teams that beat Pep's Barca weren't called lucky and inferior and guilty of playing negative football, they were called better, starting with Jose's Real Madrid in 2011-12, to Chelsea in the 2012 Champions League Semifinal, to Bayern last year to Atletico this year. I can't wait to see what the next turn in the tactics are, especially since the National equivalent, Spain, is probably at their weakest in a decade ahead of the World Cup. Pep will have an answer, it might not be at Bayern though. And ironically, when Pep does develop that answer, if he's at another place, there's no one better than Bayern itself to answer back.
Ahead of the 2014 World Cup, World Football is entering an interesting time. We have our great players, our great teams, but maybe more than anytime since the heyday of Total Football, great tactics seem to be the largest topic in the sport. This tactical revolution is rooted in Total Football, but really starts with one man, a man who conquered the football world, then was conquered by it, and is now trying to do it all over again. The problem, for Pep Guardiola, is the cycle is a lot faster this time.
Tiki-Taka football was not invented by Pep Guardiola's Barcelona teams. They just perfected it, a style of intricate short passing, and movement, preached to players at Barcelona from their earliest days in La Masia to the elder statesmen on the club. It worked wonderfully during Guardiola's reign at Barca, concluding in four La Liga titles, and two Champions League wins. It helped that Pep had Leo Messi and helped further that he had Xavi and Iniesta, two of the smartest, most brilliant passers the sport has seen.
Pep's Barcelona team changed the way we look at football. When he first unleashed it on the world, most really in the 2009-10 season (as in the 2008-09 season they still blended some more conventional tactics with using Henry as a true #9, and Eto'o alongside him - evidenced by them barely winning time of possession in the final against Manchester United), no one was really ready to see possession splits of 70-30, but Barcelona did it. They were able to retain possession, pass the ball around until a defender got out of his lane, and then instantly recognize it, catch the mistake, feed the ball and score. It was a simple system, but they ran it at a PhD level.
Like in all sports, it seems offenses are ahead of defenses, but only for so long. Eventually, teams kind of figured it out. The main teams to do it early on all had a common tie: Jose Mourinho, and all had a stylistic tie of 'parking the bus', The first team roundly criticized for this defensive tactic was Chelsea in teh 2009 Champions League Semifinal, a tie they should have won if Tom Henning Ovrebo gave one of four very legitimate, some absurdly obvious, penalty appeals to Chelsea in the 2nd leg. In the first leg, Chelsea played 10 men behind the ball, and anytime they got possession, they just kicked it the length of the field and told Barcelona to start the tiki-taka process over again. What was their result: they became the first team that season to hold Barca scoreless at the Camp Nou.
The first team to expose Barca was Inter Milan in 2010, coached by Jose Mourinho. They did much of the same that Chelsea did, losing the possession battle 65-35, but countered so ruthlessly they won the first leg 3-1, and could have won it 5-1 with better finishing. Mourinho's Real Madrid teams over time did the same thing and got better at it. They only once lost to Barcelona by more than a goal (a 5-0 loss where they tried to play with Barcelona), and drew the plurality of their games against each other.
Finally, there was last year's nadir for tiki-taka, when Bayern Munich, despite losing the possession battle 68-32 and 65-35 in the two legs, won 7-0 on aggregate, attempted way more shots on goal, and even won more corners. They cracked the code. Of course, at that point Pep Guardiola was already hired to take over from a (forced-into-an-early) retiring Jupp Heynckes, so in one year Bayern became essentially the same version of the team they beat 7-0, and guess what, despite historic domestic success (never a problem at Barcelona), they've struggled in Europe.
The antithesis to all of this is the 'parking the bus' phenomenon. I didn't follow soccer as much pre-Big-4 era in England (started earnestly in 04-05), but the first time I heard the phrase was regarding Chelsea in 2009. I heard it much more with Inter Milan, especially when Barca players essentially accused Inter of doing it, and then in how teams tried to attack Spain in that World Cup. It's never really left the sport's lexicon, but it has become more and more apparent: it is the best, and arguably only true, way to successfully play a tiki-taka team, and it's gone from being something to an act of desperation, to a legitimate strategy to have a better than 50-50 chance of beating them.
The key to beating Barca, or what Bayern has become, is defend like hell. Well, that conversely, becomes easier the more you give up possession. If you clog passing lanes, the other team retains possession but it makes it harder for them to do anything like it. The more you deny them easy passing lanes, the more people they bring forward, and then the easier it is to counter-attack against a out-of-place defense. It is a beautiful little push-pull equation that works best when parking the bus. Case in point is the most recent two examples, Athletico's 1-0 win over Barcelona knocking them out of the Champions League, and Real Madrid's 1-0 win over Bayern which pushes the defenders to the brink.
In both games, the losing team had more tan 70% of possession, despite playing the game on the road. Also, in both games, the losing team had fewer shots on goal. In both games, the loser, the one with all the possession could have easily lost far worse. In both games, the winning team 'parked the bus' (though Athletico presses more than most), but was ruthless going forward when they could. In fact, Real Madrid is probably the best in the world at it, with four skilled attacking players that make any counter instantly terrifying. They are a perfect Carlo Ancelotti team, and a perfect foil to the tiki-taka.
Pep Guardiola has come under fire at Bayern, despite the dominant domestic season, due to the struggles in Europe. And there's good reason for it. Tiki-Taka is a very foreign type of play in Germany, whose style is mostly straight attacking and defense. Tiki-taka was also the style that was so thoroughly dominated by the best version of the German style last year in the Semifinals. True, Pep Guardiola was not the coach of Barcelona last year, but that didn't matter. It was still Pep's style (and in Tito Villanova, his right-hand man coaching the team), and Bayern destroyed it, countering with such ruthless effectiveness they beat Barca by a worse score than Barca beat anyone else in the Messi era.
Pep inherited that team, but placed on it his style. Because the style works to some degree, and because Bayern is talented enough, they still dominated in Germany, but now that they're playing a team that is built to beat Tiki-Taka, people are calling for Pep to lay off imposing Tiki-Taka values on this powerful Bavarian machine. And I can see why, just like Real Madrid is now, Bayern is built, on personnel, like a team that should not be playing tiki-taka but anhillating it. Their strength on offense is not intricate passing and triangles and piercing through balls. Apart from Ribery, and possibly Toni Kroos, Bayern does not have those players. Bayern has players that have talents in speed, size and attack.
Pep's style has negated the effectiveness of Mario Mandzukic, Thomas Muller, Mario Goetze, and, most worrying, Bastian Schweinsteiger. Pep's style is forcing those players to play to something that isn't their strength. It still could work, and I'm a little hasty in writing this as Bayern is still very much alive in next week's return leg, but signs that Pep may already be wearing out his welcome at Bayern is a sign of the growing acceptance of tiki-taka not being the best possible way to play.
Like any sport, the tactical evolution of football is always changing. When tiki-taka first came about, it was overwhelming on opponents. No one came close to Spain in the 2008 Euro and 2010 World Cup, same with Barcelona in 2009 or 2011 (with Inter being the one example). Soon, the other side adjusted, playing smarter and more efficient, conceding more and more possession if it led to aimless passing and greater opportunities to counter with a numbers advantage. Soon, teams that beat Pep's Barca weren't called lucky and inferior and guilty of playing negative football, they were called better, starting with Jose's Real Madrid in 2011-12, to Chelsea in the 2012 Champions League Semifinal, to Bayern last year to Atletico this year. I can't wait to see what the next turn in the tactics are, especially since the National equivalent, Spain, is probably at their weakest in a decade ahead of the World Cup. Pep will have an answer, it might not be at Bayern though. And ironically, when Pep does develop that answer, if he's at another place, there's no one better than Bayern itself to answer back.
