The famous Barca Tiki-Taka under Pep 2008-2012

RDFs Pep Guardiola's Tiki Taka recreation.

There is no doubt Pep Guardiola changed the way we look at football. Being able to play football in a such stylish way and win trophies. 4-3-3 was famously used by Pep that changes to 3-4-3 during transitions.

2010/11 Barcelona



In transition, both Full Backs (Daniel Alves & Abidal) will push up and effectively become wide midfielders. The DM (Sergio Busquets) will the drop deep and slot between the 2 central defenders (Gerard Pique & Carles Puyol) makes the 3rd defender to make it now a back three. The two wingers (Pedro & David Villa) pushes up higher, the ST (Messi) is the link between the two and willing to drop deep.



So, here is how I lined up my 2019/20 Barcelona squad to try and replicate the Pep Guardiola success.


GK: Ter Stegen - Sweeper Keeper - the Sweeper Keeper who is comfortable on the ball to start the build up. Also sweeper will come out of the goal and clear any balls if the ball beats the high defence line.

CBs: Umtiti & Lenglet - Ball Playing Defenders - Defenders who are as good with ball control than defending. The two CBs will also move out wider when in possession, this makes them available for passes to receive from both GK and midfielders

WBs: Alba & Semedo - Wing Backs - will constantly be out wide to have width and to help stretch the opposition. Very quick and fit players, enables them to get forward and support in defence when out of possession. Daniel Alves was typically the more attacking WB for Pep Guardiola, he seemed to have more freedom to roam.


DM: Busquets - Half Back - He aims to replicate his role under Pep Guardiola. So that’s to be the pivot of the team and looking to slot into defence. He is able to keep possession very well and also be in the right place at the right time to stop the oppositions attack.

CMs: Rakitic & De Jong - Mezzala & Advanced Playmaker - The Mezzala (Rakitic) is the more attacking midfielder who will look to dribble more into advanced areas, look to play key passes through opposition defence and has the freedom to roam into space. The Advanced Playmaker looks to take control of the midfield. Dictating tempo.


WGs: Suarez & Greizmann - Inside Forward & Winger - With the ST dropping deep often, the Inside Forward tries to attack as if he is also a striker. He will often cut inside and get inside opposition area. Both wingers are instructed to be wide, with the Winger (Griezmann) be the more traditional winger. Even in possession, he aims to stay wide and play in low crosses


ST: Messi - False Nine - Typically, would be the best player in the team. He has the most freedom. What he wants to do, he does. He has the freedom to drop deep to receive the ball him to work his magic. He is also not afraid to go out wide. But he must be great at doing both creating and scoring.

The Build Up

Playing out from the back is a must. This starts with the GK. he will be instructed to distribute to CBs. The aim is here that the two CBs split wide and all the midfielders drop deep to be an option to receive the ball. Your GK must be confident in possession

Defenders must have the ability to play out of the defence. The mental skills will also need to be high. Concentration, Composure, Decisions, Off The Ball and Positioning i’d say will be key. Also the technical skills to control the ball and passing ability along with vision, to find connect with good passes



Overlapping, this allows my Wing Backs to get even further up the pitch to the byline, to be able to pull back those low crosses and create scoring chances

Shorter passing with a Standard tempo (tempo linked with Positive mentality). The aim here is to keep the ball whilst in possession, but not too move the ball too slow or approach the game too fast causing unlike Tiki Taka behaviour


The final third. These forward players have the in attacking play. The aim is to exploit everyones quality. Typically i would prefer to use Dembele as the Winger over Greizmann. Everything that happens in build/midfield play allows these players to find space/pockets and have a chance on goal.


Most possession based tactics would require you to have the ball and that’s EXACTLY how Pep did it. Without the ball the team must press, smartly, to close space and shut down passing angles. To achieve this, you must counter press. Whilst also having a high line maintaining the pressure not allowing you opponents to breath on the ball.

League Table:

And now, some of my favourite results!

GOALS POSSESSION TIKI TAKA!

Download

Guardiola's Barca Tiki-Taka Tactic for FM20

Replicating the famous Barcelona tik-taka tactic for Football Manager 2020. Play possession football in FM2020 like Pep Guardiola did at Barca during 2008-2012.

THE TWEAKS!

This is a tweaked version to suit Braga a bit better as less quality in the team

rdfs_braga_tiki_taka__182249.fmf
rdfs_braga_tiki_taka_big_away_matches_182249.fmf

- Changed Mezzala for Box To Box
- Changed Shorter Passing to Standard
FOR BIG AWAY MATCHES
- Removed Play Out Of Defence
- Removed Get Stuck In

The Shape:



Key Players:

Advanced Playmaker - Most Assists



Inside Forward - Goals! Top Scorer



False Nine - Goals and Creative Link! The Messi!



RESULTS!!! GOALS AND POSSESSION

Would love to see a crazy graph with passes

Whenever I see a tiki taka tactic, I think of this...

Any changes during one match to another? Any tweak?
RDF training is a must for this tactic?

Only thing I don't like about this the amount of shots per game... Barcelona never took 25+ shots in a game, and even in Football Manager, to have that many is excessive imo. So with that part of the tactic it's just flooding them with chances and a few of them will go in. Where Barca were more conservative and made extra passes to find the perfect goal for the vast majority.

Would love to see the passing stats along with this though

2020-05-18 18:42#271423 gpassosbh : Any changes during one match to another? Any tweak?
RDF training is a must for this tactic?

yes i have tweaks, will be uploaded here

2020-05-19 02:51#271475 JmG88 : Only thing I don't like about this the amount of shots per game... Barcelona never took 25+ shots in a game, and even in Football Manager, to have that many is excessive imo. So with that part of the tactic it's just flooding them with chances and a few of them will go in. Where Barca were more conservative and made extra passes to find the perfect goal for the vast majority.

Would love to see the passing stats along with this though

yeah i hate the amount of shots too, but seems absolutely nothing i can do about that....Maybe you can have a try and tweak it? tweaks are always welcome...but i tried everything, every player instruction is shoot less, work ball into box actually caused more shooting, slow tempo and reduce of mentality also did nothing... i find no matter what tactic used, FM generally has a high shot count.

Hi RDF, been a big fans of yours. Im wondering where to find both results from the two variations you post? What is the difference between that two? And you use gegenpress instead of tikitaka?

2020-05-19 17:33#271529 Pogben : Hi RDF, been a big fans of yours. Im wondering where to find both results from the two variations you post? What is the difference between that two? And you use gegenpress instead of tikitaka?

Hey, i just replied to your comment on the tactic download page but i'll copy and paste here

"thanks a lot man, much appreciated.

link the the forum is in the description above. The more realistic version comes with a couple changes to instructions to have better possession, but less "effective" with the ME. Also comes with no Set Piece routine set, it's left on default.

i used the Gegenpress preset to get the off the ball closing instructions. things are then tweaked to created the possession (tiki taka). Just like Pep, aim is to have the ball to be in possession, so i used that as my starting point"

The more realistic version comes with a couple changes to instructions to have better possession, but less "effective" with the ME. Also comes with no Set Piece routine set, it's left on default.
i used the Gegenpress preset to get the off the ball closing instructions. things are then tweaked to created the possession (tiki taka). Just like Pep, aim is to have the ball to be in possession, so i used that as my starting point"

okay much noted. One thing what should I do with the counterfeited roles with my players’ traits?

2020-05-19 12:44#271506 RDF Tactics : yeah i hate the amount of shots too, but seems absolutely nothing i can do about that....Maybe you can have a try and tweak it? tweaks are always welcome...but i tried everything, every player instruction is shoot less, work ball into box actually caused more shooting, slow tempo and reduce of mentality also did nothing... i find no matter what tactic used, FM generally has a high shot count.

With my current save, I've got this so far

That's from 51 matches, giving an average of 15 shots per game, my possession hasn't been as high as yours though, but managed a high passing accuracy with 475 average passes per game from 527 average attempted.

i'll maybe download and tweak but currently still tweaking my own to get it where I want it. It's a good effort though

okay much noted. One thing what should I do with the counterfeited roles with my players’ traits?

i tend to leave players with bad player traits out of the team. Players who are not suited to the system may get bad ratings. If he's the playmaker, then the whole team performance can take a negative hit too

2020-05-19 18:16#271532 JmG88 :
With my current save, I've got this so far

That's from 51 matches, giving an average of 15 shots per game, my possession hasn't been as high as yours though, but managed a high passing accuracy with 475 average passes per game from 527 average attempted.

i'll maybe download and tweak but currently still tweaking my own to get it where I want it. It's a good effort though

i think you have a higher passing accuracy than me, but that's impressive man! i have a tweaked version now with Braga (in this thread) and my possession is even better!

yeah go for it if you can. Thanks, much appreciated, i tried to replicate it but also get results on FM20 to make it enjoyable for the user. So i might not have everything done perfectly to get Peps game, but tried to capture it the best whilst making it user friendly