The Netherlands haven't killed tika-taka; Spain have divorced it

First, I must hold my hands up and admit how horrifically wrong I was about Spain versus the Netherlands on Friday night. History was thrown out of the window, and everybody on the planet could not have been happier as this competition continued to be showered in goals. The fall-out from that game has and will be pored over until the World Cup’s end and beyond, but you can’t help but think such a thrashing will have a wider impact on the order of international football.

Spain were out-thought and out-classed, but the game was not a tactical revolution. Spain’s tika-taka football has not died a sudden death akin to that of, for example, Argentina’s la nuestra at the 1958 World Cup. Instead, what we saw was a failed attempt to depart from a slowly dying system – an almost half-hearted and reluctant effort to adapt.

In short, this was not a failed attempt by the Spanish to re-create the system that has served them so well at the last three tournaments. In deploying a powerful force up front in Diego Costa, Spain suddenly had an obvious focal point for a more direct style of football. Critics suggested a centre-forward was the missing piece in a Spanish jigsaw just short of perfection.

The Netherlands did a grand job of pressing high up the pitch and not allowing the back four time on the ball but even if they had it, with Diego Costa up top one has to wonder whether a more direct plan was always in mind.

Ultimately, it was an understandable and almost logical attempt to bridge the gap between tika-taka and a more direct style, but it didn’t seem as though the players were comfortable or even in support of such a system. Perhaps that is a step too far, but either way it didn’t work. The Netherlands took the lead in the second-half through a well-taken Arjen Robben goal, but the origin of the move was an over-ambitious Spanish throw-in on the half-way line.

Evidence, if ever it was needed, that this was a defeat of Spain’s own making. Netherlands were impressive and carried their game-plan out to perfection, but their opponents’ own insistence upon abandoning their principles so readily played right into their hands.

The Spanish (their management if not their players) obviously feel as though they have out-grown tika-taka, that tika-taka can no longer give them what is needed. It remains to be seen whether the two can be reconciled, but signs suggest that one of football's greatest marriages may be heading for divorce - and not an amicable one.