World Cup 2018: 3 reasons why tiki-taka is seemingly dead

#2 The defensive strategy of the opponents

Carlos Salcido - the Mexican rock

The opposition teams have now got used to tiki-taka and they adopt an ultra-defensive approach against it. Mexico’s rock solid performance against Germany and Russia’s dour resistance against Spain are testimony to that.

They preferred to sit deep and watch the opposition play harmless passes in the midfield. And when they got an opportunity to attack, they did so with lethal pace which their opponents found too difficult to handle.

Mexico’s counter attacking success against Germany is already part of World Cup folklore. Russia’s giant-killing performance against Spain has also caused euphoria in the host nation.

Other teams have also taken a cue from them and are likely to repeat this strategy in future. It is always going to be very difficult to score against such dogged resistance with the indirect approach of tiki-taka.