In recent times a few things have happened that have had an effect on public perception of tiki-taka football.
1. Chelsea, playing 'backs to the wall' 'brave john terry' 'proper English footy' won the CL final against a team who played tiki taka football.
Never mind the fact that if that match were replayed another 10 times Chelsea probably wouldn’t win once. Never mind the fact that they were battered throughout. Never mind the fact the Barca play the most attractive football that at least two generations of fans have every actually seen.
2. Brendan Rodgers, lauded for playing exceptional tiki taka football with a Premiership newcomer, getting results against almost all the big sides & finishing about 12 places higher in the league than any pundit predicted, gets the Liverpool managers job.
Journalists from every major paper state that he talks well & see the appointment as risky, but visionary. Then we see a pattern emerging, repeating, to be exact. The same tables, & graphs, all pulled from the same interview with Rodgers a year ago. Journalists were clearly left standing with this, their personal knowledge, bar a few, was severely lacking.
3. Roy Hodgson is appointed as England manager (typing those words makes me wonder if I'm dreaming & this keyboard is about to turn into Kelly Brook's arse). His 'style' of football being "Don’t TRY to get the ball, just defend for fucks sake boys, you never know; we might score from a free kick. That would be utopia, to be awarded a free kick". His disregard for possession stats "I don’t look at those, they're meaningless" is somehow either ignored by the press or lauded as some kind of fucking hidden genius. This despite some truly shocking performances from his England side, dragged reluctantly into the quarter finals, before the weight of carrying 5 passengers became to much for Gerrard at this age, & he collapsed into a shadow of himself, forced to accept Roy's plan of doing everything they can to get penalties, what with England being so good at penalties. The press start to see 'anti-possession' & counter attacking that consists solely of 'fucking hope you get something' as 'the English way', using Chelsea as an example of what we should aim for with this England side.
4. Spain play with no striker in their first four Euro 2012 matches. The English media, reluctant to turn on Roy just yet (they will have a timeline planned out already) turn their attentions to this side who are a symbol of everything this new English revolution of anti possession ‘play dead’ football is fighting against. This side have the audacity to ‘kill football’ (taken from a newspaper header today) by not playing a striker & winning games 1-0. Apparently they’ve ruined the fantastic football they used to play by not playing a forward & therefore not being penetrative enough. Never mind the fact they won most of their World Cup 2010 matches 1-0 & were praised for their style of play. Never mind the fact that they’re in their third final in recent history. Never mind that they have the ball that much that the opposition cant score, because when Spain finally do mis-hit a pass the player who receives it is so confused wondering what this spherical object at his feet is & what he should do with it, that Spain simply take it back again.
This probably reads a bit like a rant. That’s because it is.
The English media (mostly the print media, but some network slants) has a new axe to grind, & as Rodgers, & therefore Liverpool, will be using that system, you can be damn sure they’ll be taking us to pieces the moment they see a crack in his system or player error.
Not only that, but the great unwashed, who know fuck all about football, are increasingly repeating this ‘boring brand of football’, ‘not the English way’ bollocks.
When you’re sat at Anfield, either next season, but more likely the one after, watching us stroll around 1-0 up against Utd, passing the ball again & again, the crowd shouting ‘woooaahhhh’ at the 82nd pass in a row whilst Fergie’s head explodes with rage & he further destroys his molars he’s chewing that hard, you tell me if it’s ‘boring’, cos I’ll love every fucking minute.
1. Chelsea, playing 'backs to the wall' 'brave john terry' 'proper English footy' won the CL final against a team who played tiki taka football.
Never mind the fact that if that match were replayed another 10 times Chelsea probably wouldn’t win once. Never mind the fact that they were battered throughout. Never mind the fact the Barca play the most attractive football that at least two generations of fans have every actually seen.
2. Brendan Rodgers, lauded for playing exceptional tiki taka football with a Premiership newcomer, getting results against almost all the big sides & finishing about 12 places higher in the league than any pundit predicted, gets the Liverpool managers job.
Journalists from every major paper state that he talks well & see the appointment as risky, but visionary. Then we see a pattern emerging, repeating, to be exact. The same tables, & graphs, all pulled from the same interview with Rodgers a year ago. Journalists were clearly left standing with this, their personal knowledge, bar a few, was severely lacking.
3. Roy Hodgson is appointed as England manager (typing those words makes me wonder if I'm dreaming & this keyboard is about to turn into Kelly Brook's arse). His 'style' of football being "Don’t TRY to get the ball, just defend for fucks sake boys, you never know; we might score from a free kick. That would be utopia, to be awarded a free kick". His disregard for possession stats "I don’t look at those, they're meaningless" is somehow either ignored by the press or lauded as some kind of fucking hidden genius. This despite some truly shocking performances from his England side, dragged reluctantly into the quarter finals, before the weight of carrying 5 passengers became to much for Gerrard at this age, & he collapsed into a shadow of himself, forced to accept Roy's plan of doing everything they can to get penalties, what with England being so good at penalties. The press start to see 'anti-possession' & counter attacking that consists solely of 'fucking hope you get something' as 'the English way', using Chelsea as an example of what we should aim for with this England side.
4. Spain play with no striker in their first four Euro 2012 matches. The English media, reluctant to turn on Roy just yet (they will have a timeline planned out already) turn their attentions to this side who are a symbol of everything this new English revolution of anti possession ‘play dead’ football is fighting against. This side have the audacity to ‘kill football’ (taken from a newspaper header today) by not playing a striker & winning games 1-0. Apparently they’ve ruined the fantastic football they used to play by not playing a forward & therefore not being penetrative enough. Never mind the fact they won most of their World Cup 2010 matches 1-0 & were praised for their style of play. Never mind the fact that they’re in their third final in recent history. Never mind that they have the ball that much that the opposition cant score, because when Spain finally do mis-hit a pass the player who receives it is so confused wondering what this spherical object at his feet is & what he should do with it, that Spain simply take it back again.
This probably reads a bit like a rant. That’s because it is.
The English media (mostly the print media, but some network slants) has a new axe to grind, & as Rodgers, & therefore Liverpool, will be using that system, you can be damn sure they’ll be taking us to pieces the moment they see a crack in his system or player error.
Not only that, but the great unwashed, who know fuck all about football, are increasingly repeating this ‘boring brand of football’, ‘not the English way’ bollocks.
When you’re sat at Anfield, either next season, but more likely the one after, watching us stroll around 1-0 up against Utd, passing the ball again & again, the crowd shouting ‘woooaahhhh’ at the 82nd pass in a row whilst Fergie’s head explodes with rage & he further destroys his molars he’s chewing that hard, you tell me if it’s ‘boring’, cos I’ll love every fucking minute.
