Pep not only coached barçelona but he was also a barçelona academy graduate and also captained them.

9 is the striker, 10 is the creative mid fielder A False 9 shows both characteristics

Tiki Taka characterized the playstyle of 2009 Barça the best team in history 🔵🔴

Actually, the Core of Barca players at that era grown up playing together at Barca Academy (La Masía): Messi, Busquets, Iniesta, Xavi, Piqué, Puyol, Jordi Alba, Cesc Fabregas, Pedro. Is not only about Coaching, is about the philosophy of the club.

These ‘Luke teaches Corey’ videos are the best. I always feel like I’m relearning stuff I’ve forgotten! 😊

Positions used to match shirt numbers. There was numbers 1 - 11 on the pitch at kick off. Numbers used to correspond with positions generally. No 9 was usually your striker/centre forward. Then it moved to squad numbers instead but we use old school numbers to generalise positions still 👍

Fun fact about Pep, he actually played the same position as Busquets for Cruyff in the 90s.

That Barcelona team (2009-11) is the greatest team in the history of football! They won 14 titles in Pep Guardiola reign! Yes you've heard that right. Including a "sextuple", Messi also won 4 Ballon Dors in a row (09-12). Spain also won 2 Euros and a World Cup in that time frame because Spain's 7 out of 11 players were all Barcelona. They were magical ✨

The reason why they pass the ball back after pressing and winning the ball is to drag the opposition team out from thier side of the pitch and create more space not only because Guardiola like to do that

7:16 yes, these players basically grew up together in the academy. On top of that, they were coached and trained into a total football philosophy. The result was a near telepathic understanding of each other's movement and next play while on the pitch

The term tiki taka is more like a fan made slang. The real philosophy here, developed by Pep Guardiola, is called Positional Play. And Positional Play itself is spin-off of Total Football, developed by Rinus Michels in the 70s. Cruyf was Michel's pupil, who brought the philosophy to FC Barcelona.

2009-11 Barcelona team is the greatest team I've ever seen in the history of football! They're were so destructive and magical they were just incredible to watch! Xavi, Iniesta, Busqets and Messi were just magical! ❤️

For Tiki Taka you need extremly high quality players in your team and Barcelona has extremly talented players if not the best players in every position in the world during Peps era. Thats why you dont see teams using it as much anymore, they simply dont have the quality required in every position. Also Barcelonas academy La Masia trains this system since childhood and alot of the players in this team came from La Masia. Xavi and Iniesta were even better passers than Messi with the other team members not far behind. Even the defenders were excellent passers. Xavi and Iniesta was so good together they pretty much shared one brain. You could say individually they were 1 player, but combined they were 3 players. They never lost posession and often had 100% pass completion. Alves, one of the best defenders ever (who is now in jail) a Brazilian right wing defender was Messis partner on the rightwing and linked up beautifully with tiki taka passes. Busquetes defined the DM role and was the best in his position during his time. Puyol, the best central defender in the world during this time mentored Pique into becoming the second best central defender during this time. Pedro came from La Masia and was often better than even Messi as a Right Wing, unfortunally he got injured and never became the same player. Villa was brought in from Valencia and melded straight in and dominated the left wing position. Then they brought in quality older players like Thierry Henry and Henrik Larsson that could come in and be just as good as first team players. You couldnt really stop tiki taka as much as hinder it, and the only tactic was pretty much putting 10 players inside the penalty box to defend and rely on counters, which was often called anti-football becouse it was such a boring tactic. If done correctly, there is no real way to defend against tiki taka. Any team that tried to attack against Barcelona got slaughtered. It was not uncommon for Barcelona to have over 90% posession in games. One phiolopophy about tiki taka is that even how fast you run you cant run faster than the ball, so you make the ball do the work for you making the oponents wear themselves out chasing the ball. Thats why they often singled out the oponents best player like Ronaldo to pass around so they could wear him out. The Messi Neymar Suarez era was not the same. They relied heavily on those 3 players and it didnt really make for fun to watch football. It worked for one season where they won everything, but when clubs figured out that was the only tactic Barcelona used they just put all defence on those 3 players and the team collapsed. The coaches and presidents that took over after and Guardiola and Laporta lived in the dellusional belief that the team during Peps era that was now old and decling and not motivated anymore would just keep on winning and they didnt renew the squad and was caught with their pants down several years later. They put the La Masia academy that had put out alot of talents in shambles limiting their budget. They removed Johan Cruyff, who had built the Barcelona philopophy from his honorary board seating and shut him out of the club. They bought players for 100s of millions of € each, players that didnt fit in at all, and was later sold for a fraction of the price or loaned out. For us fans its very dissheartening to see the shambles Barcelona are in today with massive debts from poor management and beeing unable to bring in players they need and have to rely on free old players way past their expiration date.

I like your videos because you are genuinely trying to learn, not just reacting to a video like some people. Please keep having these conversations that even a fan of football like me, can learn something from lml

7:20 I’m a barcelona fan and this is a big part of the philosophy of the club itself. We put heavy emphasis on the academy. The core of that barca team filled with messi, xavi, iniesta, busquets, etc. were La Masía(Barca’s academy) graduates. When you emphasize your academy paired with a clear idea of football, you save money because you don’t have to go and buy the biggest names and they come out with how to play the “barça way”

I would love to see you guys watch one of those Barça games under Pep to get a good look at the tactics. They were incredibly dominant during that time. I remember one of the commentators saying "Pep Guardiola has created a monster".

I'm glad you're getting so into the game. The connection and passion the game allows us to share is priceless and its heartwarming to see ❤️

THE ART OF TIKI TAKA.. IS AMAZING 💥💥

a head-to-head football manager draft, trying to put your philosophies into practice (once you’ve gotten to know all the different tactics) would be interesting

I saw Luke when he just started his journey/channel and was clueless😂, but now he's teaching the game to others, and doing it well. That is pretty amazing. 🤘❤️ Btw, you're right that American football will be more interesting for outsiders if they have an open mind ( like you guys) AND have someone to explain it to them. And that finally happened to me last year, at the age of 44😂, when i spent 3 months in the US. Not that i turned into big fan, but i understand the game and the appeal now. As i said, not a huge fan, but i'll watch the big games. Last years superbowl i stayed up and was on an all night zoomcall with my american friends, as if i were in their livingroom. BUT i have to say that besides a shared phylosophy i do not see many similarities between the 2 sports tho 😂. Very different other than trying to get the ball over the line on the other side. 😉🤘❤️

Also with the false 9 not only can it be used to draw defenders out of position but it also creates numerical supremacy in the midfield allowing your team to control the game better playing with essentially 4 midfielders

That Barcelona team (2009-11) produced the greatest players of all time! ❤💙 Pep Guardiola (Greatest manager ever) Lionel Messi 🐐 (Greatest footballer of all time) Xavi and Iniesta (Greatest midfielders of all times) That Barcelona team changed the history of football forever! ✨

As Jurgen Klopp said: "No playmaker in the world can be as good as a good counter-pressing situation.", in describing the importance of the gegenpress. For reference, Eddie Howe, the Newcastle United manager, is also a lot like Klopp in his philosophy of gegenpressing.

jsut wanted to say you guys are legit some of my favourite peopl to watch on KZfaq , watching you guys from my POV is like a deconsruction of my own knowlege of Football (soccer) pls keep up the great analysis and brekadowns!

If you saw Inter miami and nashville games, that is a good example of keeping positioned of the ball and agressive. Inter miami had fewer shots, and nashville was constantly shooting, trying to get a goal, which they were able to get one. I believe Inter Miami is trying to play the tiki taka style and being aggressive as well.

Y’all should do Johan Cruyff as a player he’s top 10 ever. But his philosophy as managers and GM really put Barcelona years ahead of the competition.

Your guys videos are so interesting. Its nice to see you really interested in learning about the sport. I'm late to your channels bit subbed to both today. Keep it up

Always great to see you guys. To my surprise I always like it when Luke points out comparisons between Football and Football even though I'm (like a lot of us probably) more prejudiced about American Football than 3 Americans together are about Football. It's may be to soon to get us entirely invested in American Football but do keep pointing out similarities.

Cruyff “The Greatest Mind of Football” is the man who started a new era of Football and every coach now uses his philosophy, Especially his student Pep.

Tiki taka is almost like the philosophy of bullfighting applied to football. Try to dazzle, confuse, and tire out the opponent. Where in bullfighting the matador uses the cape to entice the bull to attack then sweep it out the way and dodge the charge, tiki taka they use the ball to entice players to charge only to then pass it immediately somewhere else. The opponent often left constantly spinning trying to keep up with where the ball is. As they take a step to one player the ball is gone. Then once the opponent is mentally and physically exhausted you can go in for the kill with minimal resistance

Actually, the reason the Spanish national side used the tiki-taka style was because FC Barcelona players were the core of the national squad as well. Xavi, Iniesta and Busquets were the midfield for both teams (Barça and Spain), and they were aided by other Barça players on the national squad like David Villa and Pedro (forwards) and Carles Puyol and Gerard Piqué (both defenders). So basically, the Spanish national team that won the Word Cup and two straight Euro championships was Barça plus a few players from Madrid and other teams, who usually didn't participate in the tiki-taka because they weren't used to playing that style in their regular teams and had trouble adapting to it.

Hey guys. Ive watched both your channels and i think you guys have the perfect chemistry. You guys can actually create a channel for both of yall. I think its grow even more the solo channels.

Carlo Bilardo invented another school bases on pragmatism and hard work. Allowing to take Argentina underdog national team to the world champion in 1986 (Lead by Diego Maradona). Bilardo is one of the greatest football managers ever.

how amazing it feels to listen to you guys, I'm from South America and South Americans enjoy talking about "football", and seeing you guys, I feel that we can have something in common....thanks for your video

Its a great "reaction dynamic" when you have 'an expert' vs. 'newcomer' at least for me, because that way the important things are explained and we get to see his reaction of learning this new stuff on the spot.. Often in reaction videos you just get the usual "pls let me know in the chat" and if its a brand new subject people are just bewildered/overloaded and you're left sort of unfulfilled reaction-wise because people dont really know what they just watched.. This was great stuff.. I could litterally take this video and show to anyone and they'll get it..

You guys should react to channels that breakdown that kind of thing, like the purist football, a lot of things it's easier to understand when you can actually see the system operating in real time.

In 4-3-3 you can just imaginatively think the front 3 as LeftWinger-Centre Forward- RightWinger with the assumed number 7-9-10 or 10-9-7 Usually CF acts as the number 9.

I'm bingeing all of yours' and Luke's videos as it genuinely makes me happy to see two American guys enthused with football. The USA has so much to offer the beautiful game if it really got interested, and I will never get tired of Americans making the effort to learn and slowly get more and more into the history, personalities, and tactical systems football has. Just do me a favor, yeah? Please don't win every single event like you tend to do in every other sport you get interested in. :)

Barcelona and arsenal was competing for the best tiki taka strategy during those days😊. What a great memory.

For me, American Football is tactically a great game. Like a big game of chess, but with a ball. I've watched the NFL many times over the last few decades and I do enjoy it (though I still call it "rugby with armour"), but with constant commercial breaks and so much down-time (ie. a 1 hour game that takes around 3-4 hours), it's a hard-sell to some viewers, especially if they're used to fluid, fast-paced games. Thankfully, here in the UK, when you guys cut to commercials, we cut to the studio, where pundits, ex-players, etc, break down the game and the plays for us. :)

I loved this video and I have a few things to add. First, when fútbol fans speak about formations we take the goalkeeper for granted, we say 4-3-3 or 4-4-2, but in modern fútbol we should notice the importance of a goalie that plays with his feet and/or has very good long passing. A goalie like that deserves that the formations get the 1 back at the beginning. The best example of a goalkeeper that does that (sorry for being culer) is Marc André Ter Stegen. I don't know if you already have a video on goalkeepers but there's a whole world within that position. Also, in the beginning of this video you say that tiki-taka is not exclusive of Barcelona, and it's true that the spanish national team won 3 thropies in a row playing this style. But the truth is that the style developed through generations in Barcelona (Cruyff in the 90's, Rijkaard and Guardiola after him, and it still goes on nowadays with Xavi) and from that Barcelona team from 2008 to 2012 came the spanish national team. Guardiola was the first coach in modern times to build a first class starting eleven exclusively with players formed in Barça's academy "La Masía", most of them where spanish so they were 70% of spain's starting 11 too. And the other 30% were the goalkeeper, a defender and David Villa, who signed for Barcelona after winning the World Cup. So, yes, the "tiki-taka" term wasn't created by Andrés Montes narrating a Barcelona game, but that style in those years was created by Guardiola and Barcelona's players at that time, not by the spanish coach or the national team per se. I could go on commenting about fútbol but it's getting late and younger people don't like reading long raps... Thanks for your passion, keep it up. Love!

That is true. Everything is a trade off. Amen.

It's interesting to hear the discussion through the philosophy and tactics. As a Serie A fan, I must say that there are times when possession works against you. Especially when teams deliberately give up possession on purpose in order to hard counter. Playing from the back also lures out a defending team from being set in a low block into a higher press which is easier to attack because players move in transition. With Pep, he has the best players in his system so he has the tools to overstep some tactics. Check out DeZerbi at Brighton.

Based on a 4-3-3 Formation: Goal keeper = number 1 Right back = number 2 Center back = number 4 The other center back = number 5 Left Back = number 3 Defensive midfielder = number 6 Central midfielder "that goes both way" = number 8 Offensive midfielder = number 10 Right winger = number 7 Left winger = number 11 Striker = number 9

I love the fact that you guys are actually trying to understand the game, specially Luke seems really into it. I'm from Barcelona and I'm a Barcelona fan but I kind of not like the term 'tiki-taka' because it's romanticized and many times understood as a concept of dancing around, passing the ball without any clear purpose, but in fact they are moving the opposition around so they break their defensive structure and so when this happens they find an empty space someone can attack and therefore try and score a goal. What happens with the tiki-taka is that many teams nowadays (specially in La liga, the spanish league) whenever they play against Barcelona which still happens to play this newer possession game ( that's what I like it to be called, not 'tiki-taka') is they just sit back and wait for them to come to them, because what used to happen back in the golden era of Barcelona is that teams used to try and steal the ball from the Barça players so then's where they would just tear them apart by quickly passing the ball and breaking their defensive structure. These teams sit back with their defensive structure well formed and this is when this philosophy struggles the most because it's so hard to find these empty spaces when literally the whole 10 opposition players are almost inside their own box. This is when the players quality is most needed. Keep the great work up, no doubt I will keep on following you guys!!

your football understanding got so much better

A traditional 9 is the main forward up front through the middle who scores goals and occupies the backline defenders. He normally stays the furthest up front and stretches the defence running beyond. Also he holds the ball up so the rest of the team can join him and move up the pitch. False nine starts in the same position as a traditional nine but then leaves that space and drops into midfield. This either leaves gaps in the backline if a defender follows the false nine or allows an overload in midfield which allows dominance of possession. The tricky thing is the false nine needs great technique and intelligence to pull off the move. Not everyone can play it. Firmino at Liverpool also did it well.

The reason why they boot the ball back is so that the players can get back to their position. When attacking, the players are very fluid. You see Dani Alves 90 meters away from his defensive position while attacking as just an example. The opposition then need to run up the pitch to press the backline, which gives time to the players to get back. Which also opens up spaces in between the opposition players, which then the retreating players can occupy and provide passing options. Also, if the opposition don't press, the backline would just hold the ball and wait for everyone to occupy their positions and then rinse and repeat.

Great to see you get more and more into the sport. Its funny that you mention the similarities between american football and ''european football'', because i played football my entire live and when we played american football with like PE or something, i would always notice how my football skills translate to american football. About movement off the ball, creating spaces for teammates and finding spaces yourself. Its really similar and very enjoyable as well, or at least to play, havent watched it yet. Also something to realise with pressing, is that it HAS to be a teameffort. If one guy is late with pressing, or isnt pressing the proper way then the opponent will have gotten out of your pressure and all your teammates will have lost energy for no reason. Because pressing its very tiring, you really have to pick your moments, otherwise you are too tired to play the second half.

"It's more of a philosophy" +10 on that comment, that's exactly it. Warms my heart. As a little note, 'tiki-taka' is a spanish idiom that basically means something that is straightforward, while also implying there's two or more things that are done together or in a sequence.

I really like this videos guys! Keep going! Tomorrow its Copa Libertadores quarter finals for my team boca juniors! (libertadores is the latinoamérica version for the champions league) hugs from Argentina!

I'm glad Luke mention the documentary "Take the Ball, Pass the Ball" to Corey. Hope you get a chance to go watch it Corey.

It's basic, but I think you take a very honest approach. Keep it up!

Ive never enjoyed american football nor basketball because theyre always stopping the clock, but I may give it another shot because of you. Football is life and Im so glad you guys are beginning to fall in love with it.

Really Good video! I think both of you guys are starting to understand alot of the tactics. The striker is usually the numer 9. And the 10 is usually the player right behind him.

Barcelona at that time made me think of the Harlem Globetrotters or Miles Davis Quintet - creativity and genius unleashed

Apart from the full press, there is the semi press, where the attackers and wingers drop back on the half way line to prevent the opposing team's routes and passing lanes.

The way it was beat by Chelsea in the Champions League semifinal in 2012 was to sit back and let them pass themselves to death at their final 3rd... just waiting, defending hard... and then countering as fast as possible whenever they got possession. After 2012 tiki taka fell in disuse more and more.

It's cool to see moment when it clicks for Corey here. For example how this tactic is well suited for pressing, since you'll often have multiple players nearby when you lose the ball. By the way, many of these Barca players did in fact play together since they were children in the youth academy. Messi, Xavi, Iniesta, Pique, Pedro, etc.

Tiring the opposition out is one of the main goal of this philosophy. Cruyff used to preach that too. Keep posession of the ball and make the opposition run after it. He always is used to say that when you are on the defence you get more quickly tired.

20:39 The counterattack not only depends on the offense's position, but in the shape of the team that just lost the ball. I found that this past men's world cup showed (for me) a shift from possession game to focus on counterattack. Teams like Japan who barely possessed the ball went farther than Germany who are perennial favorites.

You guys need to see a video called "Fluminense have the weirdest tactics in the world". Its about Fernando Diniz who is the Nacional Team coach of Brasil. He has a phylosophy completely different than Klopp and Guardiola.

If u can, react to Neymar Jr’s career highlights or Favelas wont forget Neymar at Santos (the start of Neymar’s career),as Neymar is the third best player from this generation just behind Messi and Ronaldo while having highlights that can be even better than theirs.

A 9 is an area striker, he has to be strong at pivoting and good heading aswell as perfect finish. Haaland is a perfect example of a classical 9, Benzemá and Kane are multifuncional, modern 9. A 10 Is the one that distributes the short passes to the attackers on the sides or the 9, the 10 Is generally the player with the best dribble, pass and shot. A false 9 shows traits of 9 and 10, he follows the 9 on a radius to make sure that if he can pivot the ball and bring it down, the false 9 or the 10 are gonna run to get control of the ball, but a 10 generally stays a bit behind and has a different positional play to engage the midfield, the sides and the front, the false 9 has more positional freedom to follow the 9 and assist or to get the pass from the 9 and Score. False 9 are generally strong, technical and fast. 10 needs a better understanding of the game, greater vision and long pass. False 9 requires fast dribbles, opening spaces, Serving as third man and other functions but always piercing through the middle unlike wingers. Also a 10 Is not a player that stays too far away behind, he goes close to the oponents area unlike a defensive midfielder or a midfielder

About the false 9: In football, the 9 is the striker. Traditionally it has always been a tough, tall, strong and not so technical guy that has to fight 1 to 1 with the center backs (they usually are also tough, tall and strong) and his only purpose is to take the ball at the end of any attack and score. The false 9 puts a small, talented but not so physical guy to play in that place, and what it tries to do is to be faster than the 2 center backs and get the ball, not to shoot to goal, but to distribute to someone that will take advantage of the space he made the center backs to leave by trying to catch him. It is a way to outplay physically strong teams that would lock themselves in the defense. It is not a really good tactic in its own, it is more a reaction when you know that your opponent has really good center backs and your center forward is not strong enough to challenge them. That was used a lot by Spain with Fabregas and more recently Ferran Torres in situations where they didn't have a strong Striker. Also by Germany with Müller after not finding really good strikers to play in the national team.

On teams figuring out how to play against tiki-taka: essentially you either organise into a low block and defend very tightly around your penalty area, minimising the space for the opponent to attack and stopping them from getting near the goal (they just end up passing from side to side around the box) - Jose Mourinho was good at 'parking the bus' as the low block came to be known - OR more recently teams like Liverpool have shown the a very intense gegenpress where you 'hunt in packs' (press in numbers covering multiple players in a part of the field to stop the short passes) to win the ball back from a possession team can work too, but it's slightly more risky because if they get it out of the crowded areas and find the players in more space they can hurt you.

The difficulty with the full press is that the whole frontline needs to press at the same time with the same intensity, any small difference and it’s broken. One person a second behind and it’s enough to thread a pass to the midfield and your front line is out of the game. Building from the back gives you more space to work with, which means that your opposition has more space to cover which makes them tired. Space + Possession forces your opponent to make mistakes because they get frustrated and agitated

Great conversation ❤

Peps style is like an orchastra and Klopps is like Rock and roll. One is methodicle and build while the other is intense and in your face. Both are great it all depends on if the coach has the players to perfork that style effectivly.

In the olden days the No 9 was the centre forward who was always the spearhead of the attack, supported by inside forwards, on each side. CFs were usually taller, and very good headers of the ball.

Hey Corey and Luke. I would love to have a video meeting if you wish to have a more complete vision of the Tiki Taka and the evolution of it due to the circumstances Barcelona went through. And football analysis and the counters Guardiola would have to deal with.

There's a certain video on KZfaq called “Development of Guardiola's 4v4+3 Juego de Posicion”. I think it excellently illustrates how the positional play principles (behind Tiki-taka) work at their core. You might find it very enlightening

You should watch some LFC videos, Klopp is an amazing manager and helped players like Salah, Mane and Firmino become some of the best attackers in the world, especially 2017-19. He called it "heavy metal football"

Corey should watch a full Barca game (from the glory period). It's easy, they're on KZfaq. One really can't understand football just from highlights, which are fragments of fragments. It's the full game that explains it all.

you have to watch real madrids counter attacks from jose mourinho era. Some of the best action i have ever seen

Tiki Taka only works if you have good players in good physical conditions that know how to play with each others. If not your team is going to end up making horizontal passes and not advancing toward the goal and thats when it can be really teadious games. This happened with the spanish national team during the last years

Since your friend is defensive coach it will more amazing if he can see more defensive side of football, like Zone and Man or when you need to stuck out or closing down. Football is rich in defensive philosophy to.

I started playing football at around 5 years old .That was in the 1970's. When I began the numbers and positions were like I will show below. 1 2 4 5 3 6 8 10 7 9 11 Goaly , 2 right back , 4 & 5 central defenders , 3 left back , 6 centre midfield , 8 & 10 inside right and left (midfield) , 7 & 11 outside right and left (wingers) and 9 was your centre forward. Of course every position has evolved since then except the goaly who still guards between the sticks , hopefully , so hope that helps with basic positions.

Yes striker is 9 (mostly), and attacking midfielder or secondary striker like messi, maradona, uzil, Zidane they are no 10 .

To beat it many ideas popped up. Which combined annilated the tactic. - zonal + individual marquing - 'Blitzkrieg' counterattacks - low defensive block + central posture (let them come to us, lead them to the sides, numerical advantage in the middle) Mourinho's video on how they beat Barcelona 3-1 is just delightful. I gladly recommend it.

Keep an eye on brazil, there's a coach using tactics similair to tiki taka and I think he just became the national coach.

In the old days football, where the shirt numbers went only to eleven, usually the striker (the one who played in the center) was the number 9. The attacking midfielder (who usually is the best of the team) wore the 10. Right winger was 7, left winger 11...and goes by.

Great content, have y'all tried playing football manager? It will help you experiment with your footballing philosophies

The funny thing is, when they are passing around at on small part of the field, there are other things setting up in the other place , then b4 you realise, there a quick 2 or 3 passes and the ball is in the net... I really loved just the passing, especially when players are caught in the passing triangles... I remember one time cr7 got caught in one the barca passing triangles and he got frustrated

Slightly off topic but sort of related, I saw Barcelona play live around 2015, there was an American sat next to us and they were amazed at the home and away stands, that then made me amazed that Americans don't do the home and away sections for the crowds, everyone just sits together!

The striker is reffered as a nine but a false nine can be a midfielder playing up top or a attacking player that can drop deep to help bring other players into play. Man city did that when they did not had Haaland.

A false 9 is a mix between a 9 and a 10. A 9 is a striker ( Lewandowski, haaland…etc). A 10 is a playmaker (ozil, Zidane,…etc) So a false 9 is a striker who moves like a 10 sometimes by being able to create but also finish actions. He’s supposed to go deep in the pitch to help midfielders to keep possession and by doing so, he drag the defenders sometimes with him, opening a space behind where wingers can sprint into. So the false 9 in that case has to have the technical ability to find those hard through balls behind the defenses and also need to sprint to offer a solution to finish. So a false 9 need to be smart to understand when to stay high and when to go deep in the field. He needs to have technical abilities to find hard pass. But need to also be a really good finisher…it’s a very specific type. Messi is the ultimate false 9. But player like Eden hazard can also be one..because they can create plays and can finish really well. It’s hard to defend because you don’t know if you follow him everywhere and leave a big space behind you or you stay and let him time to create somme magical pieces… But it’s on midfielders now to step up and to be disciplines about it

I'm from Europe. Last two seasons of NFL I've watched most of play off games, superbowl included. Really enjoyed the intensity of every action teams created, the only thing I don't like that there are so many long pauses and commercial breaks (superbowl especialy). I like tactical approach of the game focusing on QB decisions in entire teamplay, it's almost like 90's football (soccer) where was well known classic 10 role players who were playmaking leaders in their teams.

Check out The Barcelona Pivot, how Sergio Busquets mastered football’s hardest role.

The common numbered players are No.1 (goalkeeper) No.6 (defensive midfielder, there may be 2 players, also usually known as a single or double pivot) No.8 (left or right attacking midfielder, 8s can play the 10 role, but are usually biased to one side of the pitch) No.10 (central attacking midfielder/offensive playmaker) and No.9 (striker or centre forward), and less commonly No.7 (winger) and No.2 (central defender). This is from a time when players didn't have their own shirt numbers and the team just had shirts with 1 to 11, where players wore different numbers in each match (up to about 1980s). To understand the False 9, you might want to understand the True 9. Strikers or Centre Forwards (sometimes there are two of them in a 4-4-2) will seek to occupy the attention of the Central Defenders. And traditionally (True 9) seek to run behind them for through balls, long balls or crosses, so they can be in a one on one situation with the goalkeeper. This is usually referred to as a striker that sits on the shoulders of the defenders (ready to run past them when they lose concentration), or a box striker (who stays in the penalty box). They have to be comfortable playing with their backs to goal (their whole team is behind them) and turn the defenders and burst through. All while having physical battles with the most physically strong players of the opposition team, the central defenders or defensive midfielders. The False 9 moves towards the midfield (to create the midfield box or diamond). This leaves the Central Defenders with a dilemma, do I follow him, thus opening up more space between my current position and the goalkeeper, or do I let him go, leading to an extra man in midfield. If the midfield is overrun, the defence will be next. Teams with talented wingers have an incentive to use a False 9 to open up space for them to occupy, while overloading the midfield. Complete Forwards are those that can drop into midfield and facilitate the forward transition, as well as move into the box ready to be at the end of that same attack move while the ball is in the half space or by line.

It reminds me of positionless basketball. Where everyone is always moving like the warriors.

with the tiki taka spaces are created in other parts of the playing field. then a teammate takes the opportunity to infiltrate with a long pass. or you can simply reach the opposite area by making triangles. but it requires a lot of control. discipline and suitable players like messi, search, iniesta, xavi, dani alves, jordi alva,

A false 9 is essentially a non-striker deployed as a striker solely for positional play, but would have his main roles on the wings or in the midfield

The classic numbers 1-11 were basically designed for the original 2-3-5 position which was used by very early clubs (back in 1900s). The roster would look something like: 7 - - - 9 - - - 11 8 - - - 10 4 - - 5 - - 6 2 - - - 3 1 Over time, 2 and 3 spread out to become full-backs or wing-backs. 4 and 5 moved into central defense, 6 usually by defensive midfielders. 8 is now used to define box-to-box midfielders (players who will often be going up and down the field to assist with both attack and defense), 7 and 11 became associated with wingers, 9 became associated with the centre forward position, and 10 is for your playmaker/attacking, creative midfielder. 1, of course, has been reserved for goalkeepers.

Tiki - Taka founded by Cryuff who is the legend of beauty football. The roots of what would develop into tiki-taka began to be implemented by Johan Cruyff during his tenure as manager of Barcelona from 1988 to 1996. The style of play continued to develop under fellow Dutch managers Louis van Gaal and Frank Rijkaard and has been adopted by other La Liga teams.

Cruyff/Guardiola was/is actually more of a defensive coach. They really like not to concede goals, but the way to do that is you have posession and actually control the game and attack

a Phill Jackson Chicago Bulls triangle is the best analogy to Pep's Barcelona imo

Tika taka is basically one or two touches before passing in small triangles., but requires alot of skill and movement. It is like a dance.

Tiki-Taka is more of an onomatopoeia that something that can be translated. It's like making noise that simulates those quick movements of the ball and the quick passes.

The reason why they kicked back and build back is because as you mentioned Mourinho and other teams that played kind of the same way, so the problem is if you loose the ball (Barca) while attacking that is when they get hurt the most