Recreate Pep Guardiola’s legendary 2010–11 Barcelona Tiki Taka tactic in
FM26 with a complete breakdown of roles, transitions, pressing and Messi’s
false nine magic.
Manchester City’s 3-0 win vs recent domestic rivals Liverpool last weekend, at the time of writing, was Pep Guardiola’s 1000th game in management, bringing up a marvellous millennium defined by unrelenting success everywhere he went, and an undying strive to constantly innovate modern football.
In this four-part mini-series, I will be analysing Pep Guardiola’s managerial journey and his four greatest sides, during his time at the three clubs he has managed in his career: FC Barcelona, FC Bayern Münich, and Manchester City.
We begin at FC Barcelona, analysing the tactics behind, arguably, the greatest ever team in football history: 2010/11 FC Barcelona. Firstly, let’s analyse the core principles of this system and how Pep Guardiola dominated Europe in 2010/11.
Tiki Taka 🇪🇸😍#FM26 #FCBarcelona #FootballManager pic.twitter.com/UZyeuSLGl8
— 🅰️ (@AshtonGgmu) November 10, 2025
The ‘Tiki-Taka’ that Wasn’t
Pep Guardiola, throughout his managerial career, has always emphasised the idea of dominating possession – it’s an unequivocal constant of his ideology, and there was no better club to platform this idea than Barcelona.
To create optimal conditions for his team to retain possession effectively, Pep Guardiola instructed his Barça side to form narrow, close triangles, wherefrom the players were required to work within the confines of that mini ‘rondo’.
The result? The famous term ‘Tiki-Taka’ was born, illustrating the enactment of shorter passing and consequential ‘one-two’ patterns, where players could give the ball to each other and instantly receive it back in an, almost, ‘merry-go-round’ manner.
Pep Guardiola, however, wasn’t the most receptive of the term, calling it “rubbish” in an extract of the book Pep Confidential: The Inside Story of Pep Guardiola’s First Season at Bayern Munich:
“I loathe all that passing for the sake of it, all that tiki-taka. It’s so much rubbish and has no purpose. You have to pass the ball with a clear intention, with the aim of making it into the opposition’s goal. It’s not about passing for the sake of it.”
6-Second Rule
Whilst this narrower, shorter positioning between teammates has the benefit of creating ideal conditions to retain possession, it also created ideal conditions for Barça’s players to instantly counter-press the second they lose the ball.
In his time at Barcelona, Pep Guardiola birthed the famous ‘6-second rule’, which states that his team have six seconds to apply immense pressure in an attempt to win back the ball upon losing possession – if his side is unable to regain possession, they drop off slightly to retain a solid defensive shape.
Magic Messi
Arguably the greatest beneficiary of Pep Guardiola’s meticulous coaching methods was Lionel Messi, who, under Pep Guardiola’s management, won four consecutive Ballon d’Or awards, underlining the incredible success the pair achieved together at Barça. In this system, Messi was given complete freedom in his false nine role to move wherever he please, constantly overloading the midfield and linking up with team-mates.
Messi’s deeper positioning asked a challenging question of the opposition centre-backs: Do they step up and pressurise Messi, leaving space in-behind them for another Barça player to exploit? Or do they retain a solid defensive line but, in doing so, cede possession to one of the greatest ever to play the sport?
If they chose the former, Barça’s wingers, Pedro and Villa, or even Iniesta could penetrate the gap created by the centre-back/s stepping up. And if they chose the latter, Messi could get his head up and, quite frankly, could do anything – dribble, pass, shoot: He had it all in his locker.
Let’s Break Down the Tactic
In Possession
When Barça had the ball, their prolonged periods of possession would begin from build-up – back in these days, it was very uncommon to see team’s pass it short from goal-kicks, but Pep’s Barça led the revolution. From here, Valdes would distribute short into the centre-backs to initiate their build-up.
Under Guardiola, Barça often operated within incredibly narrow confines, and as such they would utilise a lot of shorter passes to retain possession and circulate the ball – they often did this at a slightly higher tempo in order to keep the opposition moving and guessing.
Finally, the ultimate aim of Barça’s possession was to reach the byline for cut-backs and create high-quality chances.
Out of Possession
As aforementioned, when Barça would lose the ball, they’d instantly counter-press, in-line with the 6-second rule enacted by Pep Guardiola, to try and regain possession; If they were unable to regain possession within this 6-second window, they would drop into a compact ‘high-block’, wherefrom they would press high and would try and force the opposition into wide areas.
To supplement their regular high-press, the backline would hold a very high position, close to the halfway line, with Victor Valdes, beneath them, ready to sweep any balls in-behind.
Opposition Instructions
Player Roles
Ball-Playing Goalkeeper | Sweeper Keeper
In this system, Valdes was absolutely imperative as his composure and ball-playing ability was hard to come by during these times; Valdes would often push higher to aid build-up. When Barça didn’t have the ball, Valdes would hold a higher position, ready to sweep any through balls in-behind. Therefore, I felt this role combination was perfect. No added instructions.
Advanced Wing-Back | Full-Back
Dani Alves, of the two full-backs, was the more attacking and aggressive and Pep Guardiola recognised this, thus allowing him to move higher and wider to provide overlaps to Pedro and link-up with players on the flank. From here, Dani Alves would regularly carry the ball forward and try to reach the byline to provide cut-backs.
Regarding the outfielders’ respective OOP roles, there was no ‘special’ role for any of the outfielders in this Barça system. I felt this role combination was best fit, with the added instructions:
(DCR) Ball-Playing Centre-Back | Central Defender
In this system, both centre-backs had similar responsibilities. From build-up, both centre-backs would drop deeper and wider alongside Valdes to manipulate the opposition’s defensive shape – this allowed either Valdes to push higher to form a temporary back-three or Busquets to drop deeper and form said temporary back-three. Once the side had progressed beyond the build-up phase, both centre-backs would regularly break the lines to find the midfielders and Messi. There was a slight disparity, however…
(DCL) Ball-Playing Centre-Back | Central Defender
…and that was that Gerard Piqué, the left-sided centre-back, would carry the ball forward more often than his counterpart, hence the corresponding difference in the pair’s role’s instructions:
Full-Back | Full-Back
To allow for Dani Alves’ more advanced positioning, Pep Guardiola required a more defensive full-back on the other side to balance the defensive line – Abidal was perfect. In this system, Abidal would often remain deeper on the left, whilst sitting narrower, in order to maintain a solid rest defence for the team. On the rare occasion Abidal would advance beyond his typical zone/s, he would try to reach the byline.
Defensive Midfielder | Defensive Midfielder
Sergio Busquets showcased to the world that, in a team with the magician that is Messi, there is a beautiful picture in the art of simplicity. Busquets was, arguably, Barça’s most important player as he was the hub of everything good they would do – remaining omnipresent both in-possession and out-of-possession. If beauty is, indeed, in the eye of the beholder, I’m sure the one beholding Busquets’ beauty, in this case, was Van Gogh.
Midfield Playmaker | Central Midfielder
Xavi was one of three Barça players to finish in the top 3 at the 2010 Ballon d’Or rankings, giving one of the very best players of his generation the recognition he deserved for his contribution to his side. In this system, Xavi would often drop deeper to receive and recycle possession, dictating the tempo of the game alongside his fellow conductors in the centre. However, Xavi could also prove to be the catalyst for Barça at times, as he could make late runs into the box and get on the end of passing moves, along with even creating for teammates. Additionally, with David Villa predominantly holding the team’s width on the opposite side, Xavi would often launch a switch of play to shift the point of the attack.
Attacking Midfielder | Central Midfielder
Of the midfield three at Barça, Iniesta was consistently the most creative and advanced of the trio, regularly marauding beyond Messi dropping deeper to attack space or positioning himself higher to pin opposition midfielders. When he would receive the ball, Iniesta’s ingenuity would take over as he could dribble past a player or three or release a team-mate in-behind with a clever through ball. Furthermore, Iniesta would often drift wider to link-up with Villa to devastating effect.
Inside Forward | Winger
In this system, Pedro’s role epitomised that of a classic ‘Inside Forward’ role, as he would regularly move narrower and attack the space in-behind the opposition’s defence – from here, he could either go himself or reach the byline and provide a cut-back for an arriving team-mate. In this system, the entire front three was given licence to roam, allowing them to link-up with one another and wreak havoc on the opposition’s defence.
Wide Forward | Winger
Whilst Pedro, on the other side, would sit narrower, allowing Dani Alves to hold the team’s width, David Villa was the predominant width-holder for the side on the left side. From this wider position, Villa could make runs in-behind to attack the space and, like his two attacking team-mates, could roam from his position to link-up with teammates. Finally, if he received the ball in this wider position, Villa would regularly look to carry the ball inside, either to shoot or link-up with Iniesta inside.
False Nine | Centre Forward
Messi encapsulated everything great about this Barcelona team: From the incredible ingenuity to the insurmountable intelligence; He was everything to this team, and he was everything to Pep Guardiola. Pep wanted to give Messi the keys to anything and everything he wanted, and as such, Messi was given a role that allowed him to do whatever he please. As previously mentioned, for the most part, Messi would drop deeper to overload the midfield or into the channels to provide a connecting option for wide triangles – if he were to receive the ball in these positions, he could do anything: Pass, dribble, shoot… you name it, and he could probably do it!
Results
La Liga
In testing, we ended up winning the league, despite rivals Real Madrid pushing us (almost) all the way, as our 101 points was enough to secure the title! Of our 38 league games, we won 32 games, drew 5 games, and lost just 1 game all season. In the league, we scored a league-high 97 goals (2.55 goals per game), whilst conceding just 23 goals (0.6 goals per game) – the second-lowest tally in the league.
Domestic Cups
We won our first piece of silverware for the season in January, as we beat Atletico Madrid 0-4 in the Final to claim the Supercopa de España – on our way to the Final, we beat Real Madrid 1-2!
We made it a treble for the season by beating Atletico Madrid, again, in the Final of the Copa del Rey, winning 0-5 this time! On our way to the Final, we beat the likes of Girona (6-3 AGG), and Cadiz (1-3). Could we make it a fantastic Quadruple in the UEFA Champions League…?
UEFA Champions League
You better believe it! A classy 0-3 victory against Liverpool in the Final downed the ghosts of 2019 and claimed us the UEFA Champions League trophy… and the QUAD! On our way to the Final, we beat Chelsea (6-1 AGG), Arsenal (3-2 AGG), and Inter Milan (4-2 AGG), after successfully navigating the League Phase, where we faced the likes of Arsenal (4-1 W), Inter Milan (4-0 W), and Liverpool (2-2 D)… again!
Read Also
- FM26 Tactics Hub
- FM26 Best Youth Academies
- FM26 Wonderkids by PA, Price & Position
- FM26 Transfer Budgets
Conclusion
Pep Guardiola’s first job in management culminated in the creation of arguably the greatest side ever seen.
If you want to try this dazzling tactic, make sure to download it using the link attached to this article. Follow FM Blog (@fmbIog) and Ashton (@AshtonGgmu) on socials.
Thanks for reading!
