Gerard Piqué admitted that he felt that Barcelona had become predictable in the way they played as a result of being overly dependent on tiki-taka, stating: "We played the last few years with homegrown coaches, first Pep and then Tito, and maybe we ended up exasperating our style of play to the extent that we found ourselves slaves to that system, that style. Now that Tata, who comes from outside the club, has arrived, and who shares the same ideas of football, which are based on possession, he is, however, showing us different options. It's very positive because it gives us variety. When we are being pressed, sending the ball long a few times is not negative; it helps you mix things up, giving you oxygen and preventing us from getting crushed with no way out. We have started pressing far up the field again, winning back possession in the final third of the field and, from there, it's far easier to create chances without having to build up from right at the back, particularly against sides who close up a lot. It's normal to try to develop new ideas and variations. After many years, our opponents obviously knew how we attacked, how we moved. Look at Alves and Alba, for example. They push a lot and some opponents would give them space down the wing, but not let them move inside. It became difficult to get in. We needed to find alternative solutions and Tata's doing that without ruining our style – we still have the same possession. We needed variations like this." Although Pep Guardiola is known for adopting a tiki-taka inspired playing style with his teams, in 2014, he was dismissive of the use of the particular label being applied to describe his teams' playing styles; moreover, he himself was critical of a possession–based strategy with little attacking intent, stating: "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. Don't believe what people say. Barça didn't do tiki-taka! It's completely made up! Don't believe a word of it! In all team sports, the secret is to overload one side of the pitch so that the opponent