Tiki-Taka Explained

That Patricia Highsmith books lack descriptions of piss-smelling streets was not what I was expecting to take away from this podcast.

I thought Joe was going to start singing "put ya hands uppp in the air putttt ya hands uppp, in the air..." for a moment then... hahahaha...

When yal said Brandt at city i flipped out i was so pissed yo

Thanks for a really enjoyable and informative offering.
I think that Tiki-Taka is a very niche style of play and requires a brilliant squad of technicians plus a couple of elite players sprinkled in the MF and Forward lines with a bold, equally brilliant coach on the sidelines. I think as the seasons went on under Pep at Barca they shifted focus more to possession as a way to compensate for structural weaknesses...

Now I don't think Tiki-Taka will fare as well as it did in that period between 08-12 as was pointed out, now we see more teams employ the tactical anthetisis with several notable instances of success against Barca just outside of that peak period of Tiki-Taka.
I think Barca has to evolve and embrace certain tweaks similar to what we see at City as the English club under Pep is still possession focused yet have more strings to their bow and actually embrace some direct elements.

Once again, thanks for a quality episode.

Can you make a podcast about Guardiola's Barcelona, specially their peak season (2010-2011) and greatest performances, like the 5-0 against Real Madrid (the greatest performance in football history in my opinion, the technical pinnacle of this sport)?

love the new layout

Fascinating.. Cheers.

Caaammmmaaann guys use ur webcams

I think an effective analogy to football is Boxing at times, and Tiki-taka to Floyd Mayweather. Very technical, one of the best to ever do it, very controlling likes to hit and not get hit, but very susceptible to being boring. You can't deny how good and how effective it is but it's not always fun to watch a team roll their shoulder and jab and move for 12 rounds. Teams like Liverpool play like they're in the heavyweight division, you throw bombs and risk getting nuked.

A lengthy podcast, but it's about that trash system. Tifo, how could you? 😢

Listening to this it seems clear that one of the reasons why the rivalry between Liverpool and Man City over the past few years has been so goos is not just the quality of play by both teams, but also the contrasting approaches and philosophies used by Koop and Pep. Could you do something about historic rivalries and their underlying approaches to play employed. For instance, are these rivalries more exciting when teams use contrasting approaches? How does a rivalry feel different when two teams are attempting to pursue a much more similar style of play?

I’m really amused by this dynamic between Joe and Alex where Joe basically tortures Alex into uttering the correct sponsor messages at the correct time. Hilarious.

Alex saying point of crescendo is my point of crescendo

I am spoiled football fan .

Growing up watching that Spain and Barcelona team. I've become so biased towards positional play and couldn't enjoy football more often like I used to do in those days and I am not likely impressed by teams.
( I feel I'm missing something that my friend's don't watching football)

But I have to admit lately Manchester City and Liverpool have been brilliant and pretty impressive.
I like Klopp's side (despite that Anfeild disaster) which has come as a bit shock for me.

With someone like Coutiniho(pre 2018) /Havertz /Thiago / kovacic in midfield for Liverpool it would be more fun to watch.

For City someone like Grimaldo/Alaba/Chilwell at LB and ball playing defender like Skriniar / Upamecano they'd return back to their old form.

Tifo football podcast drinking game
Take a drink every time
-They say "inverted"
-Mention "passing lanes"
-"Pressing"
-Joe desperately tries to talk about something that isnt football
-Mention a specific "The Athletic" article
- you have to Google what player they're talking about cuz you dont watch the italian 3rd division

If anyones got extras leave a comment below

The seafaring 8 bit Japanese music is growing on me.

I prefer Taki Taki rumba

Penetration boys. It’s all about penetration.

Tiki-taka: "hi"
English football and Tifo: "we don't do that here"
I've to say I've seen better videos from tifo

It is not unfair, tiki-taka is best, most pure form of football. Yes there are other ways to play football, all of them valid of course. But they are more corrupted ways to play. And it had absolutely nothing to do with its name, come on be serious guys :). In many ways having watched so much of Xavi and Iniesta, so much Spain and Barsa of the time, it has ruined football for me a bit. Anything Ive watched since has been a poor substitute for that football. Btw that was the real tiki-taka, any other current versions are just something else. Great channel though! Keep up the fantastic job you are doing :)

The intro and outro reminds me of an Alex Zane gameshow

Do you ever resent that your last name is Devine instead of Divine? I probably would.

You could do a podcast on how to reform the Champions League / Europa cup, if you think they need reform.



Making them into one big Seeded two leggedd knockout tournie would be pretty great imo.

the moment i liked the video was joe walking alex through the athletic sponsorship bit. premium content

Athletico Mince want their theme tune back

Very fun podcast, I've been really enjoying it the past couple of weeks. Thank you.


A request; "What's going on at Newcastle United?"


I don't refer to the trite, oft-regurgitated hyperbole of 50,000 passionate Geordies and all that lark (all football fans are created equal). Just an objective, in-depth, and typically-TIFO discussion of the club's current status in the game. Help expose what a scumbag the owner is by just using facts regarding the club's debts, the SD advertising, the sale of club-owned land, the status of the club BEFORE he decided to sink his parasitic fangs (or whatever leeches have) in to the club, the relentless barrage of lies and biased, discourteous main stream media "interviews". You wouldn't even need to use highlighting his many downfalls as a human being as the main topic of the video, it'd simply become apparent.


In a piece discussing the financial state of the game and the motives of football club owners, Football finance expert Kieran Maguire stated “If Mike Ashley, for example, offered £2bn for the club I supported, I’d be soiling myself". And the less said about his treatment of Sports Direct staff the better. His recent actions should serve as incentive enough to want to expose this wretched, greedy, malevolent bully. And now that your audience is up (I assume) it would offer a perfect opportunity to do so.


Peace and love. Stay safe and all that sort of thing x

Thiery Henry has some good interviews where he talks about the concept of positional play he learned from Pep

People forget Yaya Toure played a lot of centre back at Barca

wow, so much good content coming out recently! COVID19 isnt all bad after all;)

Ajax's run in the Champions League showed that you don't need exceptional players to do damage with a tiki-taka-esque style of play.

I've loved Tiki Taka since I saw Guardiola's Barca tear Mourinho's Madrid side 5-0 about a decade ago. When I coach junior teams I encourage rotation and ball retention because I've always believed possession based play breeds football intelligence.

Question: why do you think the 4-3-3 formation is the dominant formation when it comes to tiki taka? Is it simply because its optimal in terms of player positioning or is it more to do with the ability to spread play and make the pitch as wide as possible without committing midfield players (Man City for example)?

P.S I always found gegenpressing to be sexy

Brilliant podcast thank you

On the topic of Tiki-taka being a pure form of football, it actually encourages more fouling from the team playing it. Both Barcelona and Manchester City are fairly infamous for their tactical fouling. They not only stop a whole attack in its tracks, but since it is done in a fairly precise and gentle manner, they also rarely get booked for it.

You can often see Busquets and Fernandinho going straight for the foul with no intention to win/play the ball. They usually make use of their hands to make sure the plr stops and do not hurt him. Yet, that is a fairly cynical form of play - they are essentially using the rulebook to stop attacks, not their sporting abilities.

Thanks for the ramped up and excellent content, exactly what we all need at the moment!