Ivan Rakitić
- Thread starter Barcaman
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te amo barca
Blaugrana al vent
It's also worth mentioning that the term "tiki-taka" itself didn't emerge out of nothing during the Pep era. In fact, the Spanish journalists used this term during the world cup 2006, describing the way that Spain NT used to play.
BBZ8800
Senior Member
Ok, let's not go into circles, sorry if I am wrong, but in your reply, all I see is Pep, Pep, Pep's era etc.
So, no mentioning of 90s, early 00s etc.
My experience as a Barca fan:
1994' I watched a final as a kid, and my dad told me: Barcelona is the best team in the world
-- I said: "Ok" and they became my favorite team
-- they lost 4:0 against Milan that night
1995-2004:
-- a bunch of awesome Barcelona's teams where we always had the best or one of the best attacks in the world (Romario, Stoichkov, Ronaldo the Brasilian, Rivaldo, Figo, Kluivert, Sonny Anderson etc)
-- so, attack was never our problem
-- we were always the best in that department
-- our problem was a balance of a midfield and defense
-- we always played either too attacking (Van Gaal) or with a bunch of short midfielders/defenders like Frank De Boer, fullbacks Sergi Barjuan and Albert Ferrer etc
-- 2005:
-- our attack has reached new heights with Ronnie and Etoo
-- but our midfield was still bad with too many small players in Xavi, Iniesta, Deco, Gerard Lopez and with injured stronger players Motta and Edmilson
-- Chelsea again trashed those short midfielders
= after that night, I was pissed and I almost said to myself: I will never again watch Barca's matches, we are just a bunch of idiots with our too attacking football and with totally unbalanced defense and midfield without any height or muscles.
We always play technically beautiful and attacking, but more or less, we always lose in semifinals against any stronger and more balanced team.
I was soooo pissed...
But, luckily, in 2006 Rijkaard figured out Barca's problem and:
-- played with 3 strong defenders in 433 with small Gio VBronckhorst and stronger Puyol, Marquez and Oleguer as a RB instead of shorter (and too attacking minded) Belletti
-- in the middle, we gained some muscles since we played two STRONG midfielders in all matches (Edmilson/Motta/Van Bommel) and 1 shorter midfielder (Deco, Iniesta, injured Xavi)
-- so, who knows, maybe Xavi's injury was the best thing in that moment because we had to play with 2 stronger guys then (usually Edmilson and Van Bommel)
Coincidence or not, we sold Van Bommel and Motta and turned to our golden duo Xavi and Iniesta (plus shorty Deco) after 2006, and of course, we haven't won any trophies after that (yes, we had 1000s of other problems, but still, in the moment when we removed muscles from our team and turned to 100% Barca's DNA, we turned into a good old crappy Barca from 90s)
-- 2009-2011, we won two CLs, but we had Messi on his prime
-- 2015', luckily, we turned to some muscles again and won a CL
I don't mean anything rude, but from watching Barca in the last 20 Seasons, I just personally HATE when we have too many technical players (Xavi-Iniesta) and too few muscles in defense/midfield/and even attack.
My opinion is that we were crap in 90s because we didn't have muscles and because our defense was consisted of short-technically good players.
Our trophies in 2006 and 2015 came from the same formula: Barca's technique+some height, strength and muscles=we become unbeatable machine in those moments.
So, I love Xavi and Iniesta, but I would NEVER again want to see 2 of them or 2 similar players on the field in the same time.
Only Messi can bail similar combinations out.
But imagine a team in the future with 2 small midfielders and NO Messi in the attack.
Imo, that is a recipe for disaster, like Barca in early 00's.
Someone will now reply: what about Spain and Xavi-Iniesta:
= the same answer
-- those were the days when NO ONE knew how to defend against Tiki-Taka
-- and Spain had 7-8 players from Barca who had good chemistry and that was it
= today everyone knows how to stop Tiki Taka and now we need a classic formula for Barca's succes:
1. Barca's technique
2. some height, strength and muscles
3. motivated players
= and that's it
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Stric
New member
Not a fan of the new haircut. 
And in general, whenever he's off the pitch, he combs his hair over his forehead, probably to hide his receding hairline. I know other guys who do this. I don't like that look, too Bieber-esque to me. To me, it ends up looking more embarrassing than hair loss. And there's nothing wrong with having a receding hairline, Rakitić makes it look good.
Still his best haircut, IMHO.
And in general, whenever he's off the pitch, he combs his hair over his forehead, probably to hide his receding hairline. I know other guys who do this. I don't like that look, too Bieber-esque to me. To me, it ends up looking more embarrassing than hair loss. And there's nothing wrong with having a receding hairline, Rakitić makes it look good.Still his best haircut, IMHO.
TornAndFrayed
Banned
blond jesus > blond bieber
te amo barca
Blaugrana al vent
We just stopped playing tiki taka because it was figured out, teams started to understand the concept and defensed better. That's why tiki-taka has never been played again. Teams got used to it.
Is it just me or does he look a bit like torres with that haircut
Bran the Greenseer
Active member
It could also have just been the inevitable decline of Xavi coupled with an atrocious defense/attack with Messi's injury problems Villa's old age and Pedro's pedroing. I don't really understand the "found out" aspect of the argument against technical players because we only started declining with our players, teams parked the bus and we still handled them well back in the day. Look at the chelsea 2012 game for example, we quite literally tore through their defense over and over for that entire match but we were unlucky to miss all our chances. We only started to look really bad the year after where Puyol really went off the edge career wise and Xavi stopped being xavi while Cesc couldn't step up to replace him in any real way.
I'm more of the opinion that to play the way Pep's team played back in the day theres a certain level of quality needed or else it turns into the sterile posession crapshow we saw post 2012.
If we had the players it'd work again, although we look more and more like Pep's barca everyday as Rakitic constantly improves.
Darko
New member
And that's why Germany won the world cup playing tiki taka...
BBZ8800
Senior Member
Barca's Tiki-Taka was Tiki-Taka without muscles, just an insane technique.
Germany doesn't play the same Tiki-Taka, but even if they do, they naturally have height, strength and muscles because they are Germans.
And even when they play some version of Tiki-Taka, they still play a lot of counters because they are Germans, they are good in direct play and counterattacks.
So, Barca's Tiki-Taka:
Pros:
-- higher technical level
Cons:
-- we didn't have strength, height and muscles back then (in Tiki-Taka's era and after that era)
-- we didn't play counters
Germany's version of Tiki-Taka:
Pros:
-- they have muscles, strength and height naturally
-- they play counters more often naturally
Cons:
-- their Tiki-Taka is not THAT technical as our version
So, their Tiki Taka is again a mixture of Tiki-Taka, counters and physical strength to win loose balls and defensive duels.
Our version of Tiki-Taka is well, just a one dimensional Tiki-Taka that worked for a few years and probably won't work ever again.
It is just way too one dimensional and could have worked only with Messi, Xavi, Iniesta on their prime and until teams figured out how to defend against it.
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