Is It The End Of Barcelona’s Tiki-Taka Dominance?

Two defeats in a row for the reigning Spanish champions is such a rare event which feels so hard to believe for all the football fans around the world. Their exquisite gameplay all around the field always making the opponents run after the ball as if they are chasing their life, has been applauded and praised by every sportsfan and critique thereby. But the recent turn of events connected to the others noticed earlier this year and also the unfortunate injury to the little maestro Lionel Messi has made everyone ponder if the Blaugranas would be able to maintain their dominance in the future.

Barcelona are known for their presumably infamous Tiki-Taka style of playing, dominating the possession not just against the smaller teams but all the bigger teams as well. Their quick passing and coordination among all the players opens up a lot of gaps in the opponents half which they use to their advantage as we have seen over some years now.

Ever since a 4-1 defeat to Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeu in May 2008, the master practitioners of tiki-taka had greedily hogged the ball like the best kid in the school playground and their master has been none other than Pep Guardiola, the present coach of the Bundesliga and the European champions Bayern Munich. Tito Vilanova followed in the footsteps of Guardiola after he left and tried his best to maintain the same level of the game but we all know that it wasn’t all the same as earlier. Moreover now, the new coach Gerardo Martino although carrying forward the same philosophy, is not a 100% believer of it and is striving for a Plan B.

The 2-1 loss to 10-man Ajax in the champions league and then 1-0 loss to Athletic Bilbao in the Spanish leaue just recently is not something the Catalans are used to. It was quite evident from their faces after the match that they were lacking confidence in their own philosophy and demanded some answers. Three months back, during September, when they defeated Rayo Vallecano 4-0, it was the first time after 317 matches that they had less than 50% possession. Their whole dominance and the concept of tiki-taka was broken by the not so strong Vallecano side even with the likes of Messi, Cesc Fabregas, Xavi and Neymar being in the line-up.

During the champions league semifinal in April/May, we all saw the 7-0 thrashing of Barca by the German powerhouse Bayern Munich. It was a completely unbelievable sight and most of the Barcelona fans could not sleep that night just because it was too hard to take such a shameful defeat. Even before that, they lost to Celtic in the group stage, lost to Milan in the round of 16 and only scraped past PSG on away goals after two draws in the quarterfinals. PSG and Milan both had chances to kill off their respective ties against a very vulnerable Barca, but failed. Bayern did not, and the Catalans were put to the sword.

The main problem with Barcelona is their weakness in their own half as well as the weak defence on the counter attack. Even Guardiola himself has admitted that his Barcelona had problems when not in possession:
“We play in the other team’s half as much as possible because I get worried when the ball is in my half. We’re a horrible team without the ball so I want us to get it back as soon as possible and I’d rather give away fouls and the ball in their half than ours.”
Teams like Chelsea, Milan and Madrid now are able to play high up the field without much of a threat from what used to be a very threatening Barça attack.

In no way am I saying that this is the end of tiki-taka but the fact is that the other teams have started to catch up and most of them have like Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund. These teams press with aggression, move as a team, take shots whenever possible and hold their positions. Bayern and Brazil did this with such precision, that one of Spain’s stalwarts in football management — Vicente del Bosque — responded by saying this: "They chased us all over the pitch, they weren’t afraid to be physical and get stuck in and it broke our rhythm. It’s not an excuse, it’s an explanation."

So, may be it’s time for the Catalans to bring in some element of change in their style of play because the other teams are getting adapted to it and now don’t find it tough enough to beat. Thus Barcelona does not now hold the uniqueness that they used to and are not considered that big a powerhouse for the champions league crown as they were earlier.