Top 10 incredible tactical innovations that revolutionised football

#3 Tiki Taka (Barcelona)

Guardiola's tiki-taka approach revolutionised football

Probably the greatest tactical innovation of the modern times, the Tiki Taka has its roots in the Total Football system used by Johan Cruyff's Dream Team at Barcelona in the late 80s and early 90s.

The Dutch legend had already popularised the concept of creating and using space to a devastating advantage. His compatriots Louis Van Gaal and Frank Rijkaard further made developed the concept using their own ideas such as the 3-3-1-3 formation used by Van Gaal.

When Pep Guardiola was appointed as the steward of Barcelona, he used his vision to create a system based on Total Football, but one that relied heavily on passing. They partly shied away from exploiting the space every time and focused more on retaining the possession of the ball by passing it around in order to control the game.

Tiki Taka emphasises heavily on making short passes all over the pitch in triangular patterns. It requires exquisite passing abilities and a panoramic vision that was displayed by the likes of Andres Iniesta and Xavi Hernandez. The system borrowed Total Football's use of high defensive line that helped the midfielders to form patterns suitable for short passing. It also used the concept of the positional interchange.

Initially, Guardiola had instructed his players to stay rooted to their positions until they reached the final third of the field. The build-up would start from the goalkeeper itself, with the ball being moved over the pitch in triangular patterns. Once they breached the final third of the opposition, Guardiola afforded his players the freedom to leave their positions as suitable and score the goals using sleek one-twos or through individual brilliance.

Barcelona's sextuple in 2009 stands followed by another Champions League title in 2011 stands as a monumental testament to the system. Another prominent tactic that Guardiola put to use to a devastating effect in the same system was...