The early exclusion of Spain from the final price of the World Cup "Qatar 2022" raised many questions about the feasibility and effectiveness of what was called the "tiki-taka" method.
The most important of these questions is: Is the era of "tiki-taka" over?
Especially after the exit of Spain, led by article Luis Enrique, from the World Cup, which was the straw that broke the camel's back for fans and lovers of this method and believers in it.
This question was not the result of this exclusion only, but rather came as a result of many seasons, in which the spiritual father of this philosophy, FC Barcelona, lost many matches and even titles because of its adherence to "tiki-taka".
Is the era of "tiki-taka" over?
First of all, and to clarify the picture more, "tiki-taka" is a style of play that depends mainly on the team's possession of the ball and aims to prevent the opposing team from obtaining it based on short and fast passes, and in it the attack begins from the defense line.
When the ball is lost, the team seeks to recover it as soon as possible by applying high pressure on the opponents.
Luis Enrique paid the price for sticking to the tiki-taka style (Reuters)
The Spanish Pep Guardiola, the current Manchester City coach, was the first to apply this method when he began his coaching career with Barcelona with the start of the 2008-2009 season.
In this way, Guardiola succeeded in monopolizing all titles with Barcelona in his first season, and his team had the first to crown the historic six (the League, the Cup and the Super in Spain, the European Champions League and the European Super, and the Club World Cup), and added other titles to it in the other three seasons that he spent in " Camp Nou.
After his departure from the Catalan team, the two parties remained faithful to this method, and Barcelona continued to follow the same path with other coaches, while Guardiola transferred this philosophy to Bayern Munich and Manchester City, respectively.
This method was considered a revolution in football, and it proved its effectiveness over several years, and witnessed the crowning of the aforementioned clubs in many championships, and the Spain national team that won the 2010 World Cup and the 2012 European Cup followed the same path.
With the development of football, many coaches succeeded in finding solutions that proved effective in many cases, most notably closing the area and narrowing the spaces, and relying on counter-attacks, a method that killed "tiki-taka", especially in light of the scarcity of players who mastered this method, after The retirement of Xavi Hernandez, the departure of Andres Iniesta and Lionel Messi from Barcelona, and they are the best who applied "tiki-taka" with the golden generation of "Barca".
Morocco drove the final nail
Spain's loss to Morocco in the final price of the World Cup intensified criticism of this method, which some Spanish media described as an "illusion", especially since La Roja failed to score the "Atlas Lions" for 120 minutes.
Michel Salgado, the star of Real Madrid and the former Spain national team, was one of the stars of the game who criticized this method, stressing that it had "caused great harm" to Spanish football.
Salgado answered a question about this method during a new interview with the Spanish newspaper "Marca", and said, "In my opinion, tiki-taka is causing us a lot of harm."
Spain national team fell to Morocco (French)
The former Real Madrid player added, "My opinion stems not because it is bad or good, but because it has become known and understood, even children know it."
As for the veteran Italian coach, Fabio Capello, he confirmed beyond any doubt that the World Cup, which Qatar is currently hosting, was a witness to the end of the era of tiki-taka.
Goodbye to the phantom attacker
Capello wrote an article about this, which was highlighted by the Spanish newspaper "Mundo Deportivo", in which he said, "In this tournament we will celebrate the end of tiki-taka, and say goodbye to the imaginary No. 9 striker."
And Capello sees the style that put Spain on top of world football that he needs top-class players to implement.
He said, "Even Guardiola 2022 is not the same Guardiola in 2010, when he had in Barcelona stars like Messi or Iniesta at their best levels in order to play in this style and succeed in applying it."
"It can work sometimes, but it won't work regularly, because it depends on the personality and capabilities of the main striker," Capello, 76, added about the phantom striker.
Moroccan joy over Spain (Reuters)
Capello asserts that Spain's possession of the ball against Morocco was not an effective method, because that was not accompanied by speed in transferring the ball.
The Spanish newspaper "Marca" had published a report in 2019 under the title "The Death of Tiki-Taka", in which it demonstrated the validity of its statement with many results.
At that time, the newspaper showed statistics confirming that the big clubs in the old continent had abandoned the "tiki-taka" method and replaced it with another of greater effectiveness and speed.
Marca gave an example in Barcelona, whose ball possession rate was 73% in 2011 with Guardiola, to drop to 57% in 2018, and the same applied to Bayern Munich, who had 71% possession of the ball in Guardiola's last season in 2016, then It also decreased to 57% in 2018.