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

#3 Dearth of genuine goal scorers

Miroslav Klose - the perfect poacher

The advent of the notion of a false 9 has caused a general degradation in the quality of strikers in world football. It has to be kept in mind that Spain’s supremely successful teams had goal-scorers like David Villa and Fernando Torres, while Germany had Miroslav Klose and Lukas Podolski.

It’s not possible to win football matches without quality strikers. All those passes played in the midfield are of no value unless they are converted into goals.

Spain has a top-class penalty box poacher in the form of Diego Costa, but he seems a misfit at times and does not get enough quality crosses from the wingers or fullbacks.

Germany dropped Sandro Wagner from the squad and played Timo Werner who seemed much more comfortable playing on the flanks.

As a result, they found it extremely difficult to score and win matches. Their respective coaches refused to adopt a more direct strategy and paid the price.