Fifa World Cup 2014: Tiki-taka is dead… Long live tiki-taka

I could drum out the stats – possession, passes completed – but that would only cloak this piece of prose in some faux sense of justification.

Because, all I really want to say is this: tiki-taka is dead.

And that is plain to see to even the most prosaic website reading, armchair warming, ranting and raving football fan – like me.

Holland’s demolition of Spain is the final nail in the tiki-taka style of football.

Any team(s) seeking to espouse that philosophy as the way forward – (Brendan Rogers, be warned) – are about five years too late and doomed to fail.

In fact, what is amazing is that after Bayern Munich destroyed Barcelona in the 2012-13 Champions League semifinals, the football pundits did not see the writing on the wall.

Even more astounding, the Germans, of all footballing nations, decided their recipe for success was lacking and brought in the tiki-taka masterchef Pep Guardiola to Bayern.

What happened? Bayern went from being a rampaging bull to a castrated buck.

Real Madrid did to Bayern in this season's Champions League, what Bayern had done to Barcelona.

And still they did not see the end of tiki-taka.

Spain come to the World Cup in Brazil and what do they do… pass the ball 50 times to get to the ‘D’.

And no Plan B.

“Oh”, the pundits will argue, “if David Silva had scored off Andres Iniesta’s defence splitting pass, the game would have been different”.

What if Wesley Sneijder had scored first off Arjen Robben’s defence splitting pass? The game would have been different, indeed.

If there is anything to keep from the tiki-taka philosophy it is in defence – getting the ball back as quickly as possible and as high up the pitch as possible; the high press and relentless harrying of opponents when the ball is lost.

But going forward?

Get the ball first time to your hit-man and let him finish (go ahead Sam Allardyce and Tony Pulis, you can smile).

Given the success tiki-taka has brought to Spain (Champions League, European Cup and World Cup) Vicente Del Bosque may be forgiven for being so reluctant to change.

But if they don’t it will be insanity – the definition of which is trying the same thing over and over again hoping for a different result each time.

It was beautiful while it lasted – Messi, Xavi, Iniesta – those magical days of tiki-taka. Make no mistake. It is dead.

Look for the final pass as early as possible – especially if it is a long diagonal behind the back line.

Then let Robin van Persie finish.

It is as great a goal as you will see and football played that way is still the beautiful game.

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