Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona Tiki-Taka Tactics | Football Manager 2024 Extreme Possession Tactic

Key Ingredients of The Barcelona Tiki-Taka Tactics – Positional Play and Habit Football

On the cover, Tiki-Taka can be referred to as a playing style where the team uses intelligent short sharp passes (often in one or two touches), accurate through balls and more ‘risky passes’ coupled with one-twos and intelligent movements both between the lines and into channels – using possession and passing play as a bid to control the match.

But behind the surface lies the importance of creating a football philosophy of habit football by utilizing positional play to create rhombus and triangles which increases the amount of passing options for the player with the ball – not only for whom in possession of it, but also for the supporting player or the second and third attacker(s) close to him.

The clue is to use the entire playing surface to move the opposing team by passing play – having the patience to open up the defensive block by quick short passes by limiting the amount of running your players must do.

How the team looks to stretch play to aid ball circulation and create appropriate gaps to penetrate a solid defensive block is one of the main features of the Barcelona tiki-taka style of play.

The Importance of Width

Guardiola favoured something we can translate as a flexible width. His idea was to make the pitch as big as possible when in possession while decreasing space between each player out of possession. In addition to that, his philosophy was that the size of any football pitch could be altered by the team playing on it.

This was done to be more defensively solid, forcing the opposition to exploit the flanks. It was a matter of playing wider in the attacking phase and staying much narrower in the defensive phase pushing the opposition team down the wide channel (wings). Rather than letting them prosper from lots of space between players in the middle channel, the opposition was forced into the wide channels where there are less passing options.

The reasoning behind this was that it would be more devastating if the ball was lost in key areas of the centre channel since the opponent could launch a dangerous counter-attack.

This idea about dominating the centre can draw similarities to chess where you aim for the same. In both sports, you need to keep the focus on both attacking and defending at the same time.

By playing wider when in possession Guardiola’s team wanted to create larger spaces in, and attack through, what can be referred to as the half-space – outnumbering and overloading the fullback and penetrating the space between the fullback and the closest central defender. Here comes the importance of setting the correct player roles and duties between the wide forwards and the wingbacks.

As always throughout the history and evolution of the tiki-taka, and the freedom from the managers to express his ideas on how to utilize width – it has always been a question of where width shall come from and who shall create it. Not only shall the players working the wide channel create width appropriately, but also be able to create lots of opposite movements and overlap each other in order for the attacking play to not become static.

What has changed or been adapted from manager to manager for those aiming to play possession football at Barcelona is how the team shall use width in the different phases of play, where width shall come from (wingbacks and inside forwards or inverted wingbacks and traditional wide wingers – this depends often by the players at your disposal, their specific traits), and how much importance width shall have over the importance of compactness and defensive solidity.

Pep Guardiola’s Masterpiece

Pep Guardiola’s masterpiece was the importance set on player’s positioning to both create depth on the field in order to reduce the amount of running each player must do per match, as well as the ability to regain possession more effectively.

Former successful FC Barcelona manager Josep Guardiola, who re-invented the false nine, once said;

“We want to emulate the amount of running players must do. When you win back the ball, there are 30 meters to the goal rather than 80. I want Messi as far forward as possible.”

Josep Guardiola

Josep Guardiola’s idea was to regain possession as high up the field as possible. By starting the pressure from the forwards and as close to the opponent’s goal mouth as possible he stressed the opposition in the most dangerous areas on the field – close to their own goal and within their own defensive third.

Rather than waiting for the opposing team to get to the halfway line before setting pressure on the player with the ball, Guardiola wanted to minimize the defensive transition phase as much as possible. He saw it as lost time.

Recovering the ball immediately after the ball is lost is not only the concept of counter-pressing but also the founding principle of Guardiola’s possession game – one of the reasons why his teams would be able to dominate any oppositions with extremely high possession ratio (+65%).

It seemed like Barcelona was always in possession!

With the help of utilizing an extremely high defensive line, a higher line of engagement and urgent pressing intensity – something that may give you the assumption that the team plays the majority of the match in the opposite half – Guardiola played an extremely high-risk game.

“We play in the other team’s half as much as possible because I get worried when the ball is in my half.

Josep Guardiola

It was a matter of squeezing play to a moment where your team has a better defensive organization and to hunt down the opposing player with the ball who is suddenly out of position. By watching out for and knowing who the free man of the opposing side may be at all times and for every situation, it makes it easier to apply quick and effective pressing on him.

In order to regain possession as fast as possible, Guardiola introduced the 6-second rule. Specific triggers at certain circumstances dictated when the players should hassle the opponent or drop deep. It’s necessary that the players will take up the roles of the other providing both cover and support for it to work in the process of regaining possession as fast as possible (something that is equally important in the ball circulation).

Normally, the player who lost the ball, or by the help of the players around him, would hunt down the opposition as quickly as possible – taking advantage of the few milliseconds where the ball is free or not under 100% control.

Like a pack of wolfs, we could often encounter 3 players closing down one player in possession, meanwhile, a player would take up a covering role behind them – giving perfect balance to the offensive pressing – counter-pressing.

For once in the history of football, you have a manager who also looks to control the moment of chaos – the transition phases – forcing the opponent to play under his team’s terms rather than be dictated on how to play.

The Build-up Play & Attacking Phase

While pressing high up the pitch, utilizing a high defensive line, was one of the aspects of the modern version of the Total Football and which differed slightly to the original, another was the way Barcelona treated the attacking transition phases and how they wanted to enter the final third.

More focus was set on utilizing short passes when in the possession and especially in the build-up phase.

Josep Guardiola took it to the extreme by wanting his teams to play their way out of defence using short passes rather than hoof the ball long or aim for a quick counter-attack. So much importance is set on the first stage of an attack that Pep has even set a 15 pass rule for the build-up stage – this to be able to remain the team shape while moving or disorganizing the shape of the opposition.

In other words, these 15 passes will get the players in the correct position – or zones and channels of the pitch – whilst making the system into a tightly packed unit which easily breaks down any counter-attacking moves from the opposing team if they get it.

“If there isn’t a sequence of 15 passes first, it’s impossible to carry out the transition between attack and defence”.

Josep Guardiola, Pep Confidential; The Inside Story of Pep Guardiola’s First Season at Bayern Munich

These 15 passes will ensure that your players have control of the centre channel as well as managing surrounding space. While your team has played these quick short passes, the other team has chase you all over the entire pitch – creating gaps the third attackers can roam into.

This idea about creating holes in the opponent’s defensive organization is also an idea that is often used in chess to take pieces from opposing player.

Within this stage, it’s important that the players make as few passes within each zone of the pitch as possible – meaning the team will use the entire playing surface moving the ball quickly between each other. The opponent will then have to move from side to side to block off passing lanes and maintain 100% focus and concentration – keeping eye on the ball, their opposite markers movements and the surrounding spaces.

Little by little the ball will advance forward as the players are always looking to play behind the pressuring lines using second or third line passes but never to the ground diagonal passes (played through 2 zones) which the opposing team can more easily intercept.

Composure or calmness with the ball coupled with excellent vision made sure the players working under Guardiola’s system mastered the art of playing their way out of defence, no matter the amount of pressure – often favouring defensive splitting passes between the lines (read third line passes), quick short passes to supporting (nearby) players over dribbling and running with the ball over larger distances.

This relied both on; if the opposing team should try to pressure high up the field utilizing both zonal man-marking and specific man-marking (full pressing versus fake pressing), or if the opposing team stayed deep waiting for Barcelona to come at them. But as you will see within my tactics, Guardiola used different systems to counter specific threats, such as how to play against a team who uses two forwards and who press high up the field – trying to prevent your team to play out of defence.

The definitions of Positional Play aka ‘Juego de Posicion’

The founding principle behind Guardiola’s playing systems is the focus on positional play; the idea of dominating the game through rehearsed movements and templates to dominate the game. Here the players have specific tasks and responsibilities at each phase of the game. Their options and level of mentality is predetermined by and depended on the location of the ball^[1] – which zone of the pitch it’s in, and the player roles related to that zone according to the formation and shape.

Positional play or Juego de Posicion as it’s called in Spanish (which can be translated to Possession Game) is the principle of creating situational based systems – giving the attacking unit a set of guidelines to play within a structured scheme^[1] such as detailing movements and positioning for all players at each specific scenario which in turn aims to lead to a free man in an advantageous position, numerical superiority or quality superiority around the ball zone, or a set of movements and passing patterns which gives space for a specific player 3, 6 or 10 moves ahead.

The playing structure can detail where a specific player must position himself within a specific zone of the pitch in order to create both ideal triangles (which ultimately provides more passing options for his teammates and perfect cover which provides a perfect defensive balance if the attack should fail), where the next player must be positioned according to him and where the third player must run to either give space to a fourth player in a ‘better’ area of the pitch. Often it’s the subtle movement from the player closest to or with the ball that decides all other actions from the surrounding / supporting players.

These playing triggers can also detail when a specific player must stay rather than penetrate gaps with forwarding runs, or when a player must dwell on the ball in order to get a player off his line creating space behind the opposing first defender, or it can also predetermine when a player must drop deep, move diagonally or take up a position outside of his normal zone – for example when the central midfielder moves wide when wingback is making a forward run to overlap the winger to both cover for his run and maintain position in the half space to better the angle for diagonal passes into the final third, if he receives the ball after a cut back.

This hunt for ideal shapes, which positional play can be defined as, according to every opposition teams structure and formation, is a hunt for creating as many triangles, diamonds or rhombus’ as possible. The result is that it creates the best possible way to retain possession more effective and regain possession as effective.

While you aim to overload weak areas of your oppositions tactical setup (formation and shapes) the congesting of play that naturally comes with creating a base for improved ball support (having as many supporting players around the ball zone while having perfect cover) helps your team to recover the ball quicker or advance play better as long as the team is brilliant in small-sided games. It’s all a matter of stability – having an attacking structure which provides enough defensive cover to come out victorious in the hunt for regaining possession while having a defensive structure which lets the team take more risks when attacking – pushing players far higher in order to overload the opposing team’s defensive line.

What this means is that it gives the players a set of guidelines in both attack and defence which provides better defensive structure while being offensive dangerous. A result is a coordinated unit where everyone plays their part. Often what to do in these scenarios are studied and analyzed letting the players rehearse on their positioning and subtle movements long before they are executed – creating a base for habit football. This also means that a team can incorporate some parts of positional play at their club according to the abilities of the players and build stone by stone for the years to come – raising the bar bit by bit.

A perfect quote from Johan Cruyff related to the matter about congesting play and creating a perfect balance within your system through triangles and diamonds is;

“Do you know how Barcelona win the ball back so quickly? It’s because they don’t have to run back more than 10 meters as they never pass the ball more than 10 meters.”

‘Juego de Posicion‘ or Positional Play is everything that is pre-analyzed and described to the players at the training ground and taken to the pitch. It summaries’ (shapes, movement patterns, player mentalities, passing lanes and options, and required player positions at the different phases of the game) everything the team does to dominate and control the match outcome; from how the team wants to penetrate the opposition in order to create more distinct goalscoring opportunities, how the team shall overload a 5 men defence, move the opposing side enough to create weak holes to penetrate in, which can be summarized as how the team shall regain or retain possession at the best way. Similar to chess (again!) it puts focus on anticipating what may happen 10 or 20 moves ahead and uses studies and tactical analysis of your opponent to get players into the right zones at the right moment with the help of creating appropriate passing options while controlling the ball zone. It can be the movements required to create free men between the lines when facing a double pivot or overloading a specific zone where your opponent is weak (for example when facing wingerless formations) or which is statistically better for the outcome of the match (attack through zone 14).

It can also look to determine how the team shall control and dominate the match either the team is in possession of the ball or not – such as forcing the opposing player to take actions you have anticipated long before they are executed – for example by making sure the central defender with the lowest vision, composure and passing abilities is the one who starts building from the back. This minor issue gives a huge psychological advantage for the ones trying to regain possession. It’s here these pressing triggers comes into play.

The main idea with the concept of positional play is that everyone shall know where the others are at all times – almost being able to play the game in blind. It requires a good level of team work, anticipation and tactical awareness to get success with this type of possession game, but short passing on its own won’t be the answer for success.

The clue is to teach the player’s ‘habit football‘. When playing habit football the amount of time the players need to think about decisions they have to do is limited to a minimum. The tempo of the play, hereby meaning passing tempo and required movements will naturally be increased to a certain limit as players will play the game on auto-pilot. This doesn’t mean that lowering tempo at specific scenarios will damage the play, but that players don’t need to spend time on the ball looking for options, which increases the risk of being caught off guard, closed down or loose the ball in fragile areas of the pitch.

In order to succeed with positional play, it must run throughout the club as an integrated football philosophy where it’s used to achieve domination and control. This means that specific training drills related to improved positional awareness, decision-making, anticipation and vision plus putting a focus on team blend and attacking movements in order to give a perfect balance to the team must be incorporated. It’s a matter of creating a training philosophy which is similar to the ones the players will experience in matches.

In this instance, the type of training shedules you select will be as important as the players you target in the transfer market.

The positional play and the passing combinations were often taught from specific training practices and game models far more intricate than the team training methods offered in Football Manager. These specific training practices and drills for positional play and certain possession football training drills help the players with their decision-making and positioning in match situations later on. For those who look to emulate positional play in Football Manager, you can only do it to a certain extent – meaning it’s impossible to fully recreate it when you can’t manually instruct the players where they have to run or be positioned at training, or let them learn it by specific training drills. You do not have any influence over the build-up stage either but are limited to the player roles and duties and their positioning, for example when the goalkeeper has the ball and the effect team shape and mentality has on player positions.

The foundation for positional play comes from the formations ‘balanced’ team shape – hereby meaning each players positioning and player roles and duty selection in regard to the team mentality. It dictates the level of creativity, opportunism, and aggression or how much the player will focus on defensive duties compared to attacking duties – or put simply, how they will behave in different phases of the game – how much risks they will take.

The team shape may influence a vast number of things, but most importantly for me is how compact the diamond in the centre with the DM, MC’s and ST, will be. The selection of the starting formation, the player roles and duties and match mentality impacts how closely connected the players are and who, first and foremost, will be responsible to take part in the defensive phase, transition phase and attacking phase – a more fluid approach lets you experience more players involved in all phases of play compared to a highly structured approach, while a more fluid mentality will be more compact than a structured one. When it comes to Barcelona under Josep Guardiola one of their strengths was their compact shape and unison, something that can be referred to as a fluid team shape.

As I see it, creative freedom was given to some specific key players, who had the license to find pockets of space, make killer passes more often and use their flair and agility to get by their markers. In order for this tactic to function it is required to create both as many passing options as possible and finally overload the opposition team around the ball zone with compactness and flexible width – making sure the team wins the battle of possession with numerical superiority and individual superiority one on one. This can be achieved by setting the appropriate player roles and duties in Football Manager and signing the perfect players for each position according to their tasks and responsibilities.

Basic Rules When Emulating Positional Play

Positional play is not that much of a playing style as it is a concept. Here I can argue that tiki-taka is more related to the playing style than the practice of positional play. This argument comes from Andres Montes quote, who only described Spain’s way of keeping possession – a team who didn’t play positional play.

When utilizing positional play, possession will not be the sole purpose or the main aim, but because of better player positioning in all phases of the game, a higher possession ratio will come naturally. Unlike a normal possession philosophy which I believe Pep Guardiola refers to as tiquitaca in the below quote, all passes and available passing options has a clear intention – to advance play and enter final third at the right moment.

“I loathe all that passing for the sake of it, all that tiquitaca. […]
[…] You have to pass the ball with a clear intention, with the aim of making it into the opposition’s goal.”

Josep Guardiola, Pep Confidential; The Inside Story of Pep Guardiola’s First Season at Bayern Munich

Experts and coaches will most likely say it’s a big difference between playing positional play and possession football. In the former, every pass has an intention – an intention of disorganizing the opponent while being organized, while the latter is more focused around achieving those 5% of higher possession than the opponent – having an idea that possession alone can win the match, having an ideology similar to; “when your team has the ball the opponent can’t score“.

In the positional play, passing is merely used to avoid and disrupt the pressuring lines getting the ball into key areas where the opponent’s system is weak – either in terms of gaps to penetrate or by qualitative inferiority. For me the two philosophies are closely united and almost the same – since you can’t get possession without better positioning and be having one or more passing options for the player with the ball. No matter how you look at it, the basic idea of controlling the match exists between the two philosophies. Both are a result of studies that discover that teams who have more than 60% possession increase their chance for a win. One difference in my point of view is the slight change of focus of the ball (possession football) to space (positional play).

By putting a focus on the fundamental principles and the concept of positional play it will both become easier to retain possession as regaining it quicker. It will be fundamentally wrong in one way to refer to my tiki-taka tactics as possession tactics since I focus more on player positioning, but since a high possession ratio and a great number of pass attempts is the end result I have taken the liberty to refer to them as possession tactics.

Following are some of the rules I work by when creating such a tactic and which is one of the strengths of it you’ll experience when trying it out.

These rules follow the concepts of positional play, and I would go as far as saying if you are able to get these elements right you have increased your team’s percentage for a win. At least it makes you able to control and dominate the match – which is the sole purpose of wanting to play a possession game. These principles or tactical elements are what I put the most focus and time on version after version in a bid to get the shapes right after every minor ME change.

Rule 1# – Creating Triangles & Perfect Shapes

1. Triangles and diamond shapes (one to three depending on the phase) must exist in order to create a balanced formation which lets you both advance play and remain defensive solid. It’s a matter of having the best cover for the penetrating players. Within this statement lies the importance of spreading the players out in a way that it increases passing options and provides enough space for surrounding players – helping the player in possession by relieving pressure. This matter starts already when selecting a formation, but will be assisted by the choice of duties. As a basic rule, I’m looking to create 3 diamonds within the formation, but if you count in the sweeper-keeper it will be a fourth. By duties and movements, these diamonds can be dissected into triangles. The three diamonds I’m talking about are;

Click here for the illustration

• The illustration above also shows the importance of the defensive midfielder who can be regarded as the backbone of the main centre diamond. The defensive midfielder will be an important player for your team and requires excellent defensive attributes but also physical attributes (stamina, team work, and work rate) in order to dominate the centre. But more importantly, he shall have the best anticipation within your team. It also highlights the importance of making sure players are in the correct position according to each other. It’s all a matter of stating some rules for the players about their positioning and their movements according to each other. In order to create the best environments for retaining possession Guardiola have set a specific rule that I try to work by; within the channels that I’ve shown in the tactical analysis, it shall be a maximum of three players horizontally and two players vertically on the same lines. This means that a player must change position as soon as another enters the same horizontal or vertical line as himself according to this principle.

Rule 2# – Numerical Advantage When Building Out From Back

1. Possession starts with the goalkeeper and his methods of distribution. Since I aim to build out from the back and let the goalkeeper pass short (or roll it out) to one of the defenders it’s important to aim for a numerical advantage at the back – making sure there is a free man which the goalkeeper can pass to. This means that it’s important to analyze the formation and setup of the opposition’s player roles – trying to analyze the forwards (and wide players) mentality (level of aggressiveness and willingness to take the risk for example in closing down). This must be analyzed throughout the match as you might need to alter the DM’s player role or duty within the match.
   • One method Guardiola frequently used was the defensive midfielder who dropped deep between the central defenders. It was first in the 2009-2010 season Europe could experience ‘Salida Lavolpiana‘ – a tactical implementation used by Ricardo La Volpe, which Pep Guardiola picked up in his last season as a professional football player under La Volpe’s guidance at Dorados, before eventually retiring after his spell in Mexico. Salida Lavolpiana or “The way of La Volpe” makes the DM drop between the central defenders while the central defenders push wide – making it harder for the opposing forwards to press effectively without moving out of position. It opens up passing lanes while giving a numerical advantage. This method is one I often use when facing two forwards or a striker and a second forward in the AMC spot (for example a shadow striker) – for example, a 4-4-2, 4-2-3-1, 4-4-1-1, 3-5-2 or any other systems where it will be equality in numbers if simply playing with 2 central defenders.

This tactical alteration can be achieved by utilizing Salida La Volpiana – Learn more about the Salida La Volpiana how to play out from the back in Football Manager using this particular playing style and tactics.

Achieving numerical advantage against every different formation and the tactical system forces you to make slight alterations according to the above principle of creating as many triangles as possible while keeping the basic diamond shapes needed for perfect cover and defensive balance. This means that the roles and duties of the wingbacks (from attack to support or vice versa) and central midfielders might be altered in order to achieve superiority. More on this later.

Rule 3# – Destabilize the Opponents Defensive Block by Movements (Overlaps and Penetrating Runs)

• One way to create numerical advantage besides having an extra central defender, midfielder or forward compared to the opponent’s formation (for example 3-5-2 versus 4-4-2) are by movements. Here it comes very much down to the match strategy you choose and the duties you select (the player’s willingness to take risks and move out of their position for example by getting forward). I always look to create as many 2 versus 1 situation as possible. The areas or channels I want to create 2 versus 1 situation is in;
  • the wide channel between attacking wingbacks and supporting inside forwards in order to stretch the opponent at the back and force their central midfielder to push wider than usual. As I see it this movement looks to isolate the fullback and make the gap between him and the closest central defender bigger OR create a free man on the opposite flank – normally the right wingback, which the MCL can switch the ball to. This scenario follows the principle of overloading around the ball zone while under-loading space furthers away from the ball, while still moving the opponent from side to side – aiming to tire them out mentally by hopefully make them lose concentration faster.

• the centre channel between the forward (false nine/deep-lying forward), who drops deep and the MCL (advanced playmaker attack/ ‘Mezzala’ support) who I want to take his place. This movement looks to confuse the closest central defender – making him uncertain of whom to track while creating a 2 versus one against a single holding defensive midfielder. It makes it easier for these two players to connect by one-twos if the false nine gets the ball. To be honest, this movement and interchange of positions are not always the easiest to re-create as I want the mentality of the AP-S and the forward runs from the CM-A (but not as frequent since it must be coordinated runs between 4 players to get this right).
  
  Note! The AP-A will more likely surge into the final third at ‘Positive’ match strategy rather than ‘Balanced’. You can also use a Central Midfielder Attack or a Mezzala Support since it got ‘Moves into Channels’ as default behaviour.
• the half-space looking to penetrate in the space between the central defender and the fullback. Here it can be a matter of the inside forwards who sit narrower and/or makes diagonal runs and the wingbacks who stay wider meanwhile the players in the centre channel looks to draw opposing defenders attention towards them – for example by the forward who looks to move away from the ball zone. This is something we often saw between Pedro and Daniel Alves – one moving inside to force the outer fullback to retreat inside giving more space for the wingback to overlap and make crosses from the byline.

[…] You have to pass the ball with a clear intention, with the aim of making it into the opposition’s goal. It’s not about passing for the sake of it […]

[…] “The secret is to overload one side of the pitch so that the opponent must tilt its own defence to cope … so that they leave the other side weak. […] Then we attack and score from the other side.” […]

Pep Confidential; The Inside Story of Pep Guardiola’s First Season at Bayern Munich, Martí Perarnau, 2014

Rule 4# – Forwards ‘Presence’ in the Box

This is not so much of a rule I work by, but more of a principle of play that Guardiola favours that I try to commit by. Despite I like to utilize a higher defensive line in order to decrease the diagonal space between my players and force the opposite players into a defensive mentality it’s important to take into account how deep you push the opposing team. It’s a matter of giving the forwards enough space to penetrate and attack through the opposing side’s defensive block, ensuring that you don’t push your opponent deep inside the penalty area or even worse the goal area. Whilst you normally should prefer to control the center channel and all zones immediately connected to the ball zone, zone 17 (or the penalty area) must be left open.

• It’s a matter of leaving the penalty box free from players giving the playmakers a chance to make killer passes in behind the opposing teams defensive lines, and the forwards a chance to make diagonal or vertical runs into it. This is partially why I never tend to use the attacking match mentality, but keep it at ‘Balanced’ or ‘Positive’ with a higher defensive line, especially when facing teams who are inferior to mine. If you crowd it, it will be easier for the defensive team to block off shots or passes as space is congested.

This is also why I understand those who favour going strikerless in these situations; either using a Shadow Striker

or Trequartista in AMC strata. No matter what, it’s important that the player has the ability to improvise (flair) with his positioning and his tendency to attack zones – rather than staying on the shoulders of the last defender. His positioning will often determine if you are able to create a numerical advantage in the centre since you want him to support play by moving in between lines or dropping as deep as the two central midfielders rather than staying high.

While you can argue you need a player who offers depth in ball circulation when building out from the back, the rules changes as soon as you enters final third. No matter where the ball is on the pitch I want to attack the space behind the opposition team – and to do so I need to lure them out.

By leaving the penalty box free from players and instead have players arriving there, it’s important that the wide forwards (inside forwards) tend to get into opposition area. These movements have the sole purpose to cause panic and chaos in the defensive organization of the opposite team. Achieving to drag players out of position or not, might be the difference between a shot on goal (a goal scored) or a blocked shot (failed attack).

So without further ado, let’s present the Barcelona Tiki-Taka tactics for Football Manager 2024. This year there will be four different versions published – the default 2-3-2-3 formation, the 2008-09 system, a 3-4-3 tactics and a 3-2-5 tactic. These tactics can be used depending on the opposition’s system and according to the simple rule of overloading the opposition team in key areas.

READ MORE | Player roles of Barcelona Tiki-Taka Tactics Explained