Aerobic fitness and game performance indicators in professional football players; playing position specifics and associations

Abstract

The aim of this study was to identify associations between aerobic fitness (AF) and game performance indicator (GPI) in elite football. Participants were professional football players (males, n ¼ 16; age: 23.76 AE 2.64; body height: 181.62 AE 7.09 cm; body mass: 77.01 AE 6.34 kg). AF testing was conducted by direct measurement and included VO2max, running speed at aerobic threshold (AeT), and running speed at anaerobic threshold (AT). The GPI were collected by the position-specific performance statistics index (InStat index). The players were observed over one competitive half-season, resulting in 82 game performances, grouped according to the positions in game: defenders (n ¼ 39), midfielders (n ¼ 32) and forwards (n ¼ 11). VO2max was not found to be a good discriminator of AF among different playing positions. AeT (F-test ¼ 26.36. p ¼ 0.01) and AT (F-test ¼ 7.25, p ¼ 0.01) were highest among midfielders, and lowest among forwards. No correlations were found between AF and GPI. This study confirmed that AeT and AT are better indicators of AF than VO2max in football players at different playing positions. The lack of associations between AF and GPI was discussed with regard to calculation of InStat as a GPI.

Does aerobic performance define match running performance among professional soccer players? A position-specific analysis

“…In particular, analysis of soccer-specific positions revealed a strong correlation between AeT and low-intensity running (r = 0.78). On the other hand, other correlations analysed according to soccer-specific positions were not evidenced likely due to differences in AeT values and running performance among players in different positions, as demonstrated previously in a very recent study (Modric et al, 2020a).…”

“…However, elite soccer players spend the majority of match play performing low-intensity activities (e.g., standing, walking, jogging), while high-intensity efforts (e.g., high-speed running, sprinting) constitute approximately 10% of the total distance covered (Andrzejewski et al, 2016). Therefore, the energy used by soccer players is mainly produced by aerobic metabolism (Garcia-Tabar et al, 2019;Silva et al, 2011), so it is important for players to have well-developed aerobic fitness (aerobic performance -AP) (Modric et al, 2020a). Currently, it is generally accepted that well-developed AP helps soccer players maintain repetitive high-intensity actions in a soccer match, accelerate the recovery process, and maintain their physical condition at an optimum level during the entire game and season (Slimani et al, 2019).…”

Analysis of Running Performance in the Offensive and Defensive Phases of the Game: Is It Associated with the Team Achievement in the UEFA Champions League?

“…Previous studies have demonstrated that players regularly transit between brief bouts of high-intensity running and longer periods of low-intensity running [1,7]. These performances can be affected by different factors, such as the player's playing position in the game [8][9][10], physical capacities [7,11,12], tactical formations [13,14] and technical level [15]. In addition, contextual variables, such as the match status (win, draw, lose), location (home, away) and opponents' level (top, middle, bottom), impact the RP [16][17][18].…”

Relative Training Load and Match Outcome: Are Professional Soccer Players Actually Undertrained during the In-Season?

“…Such sessions included low-and moderate-speed running drills or low-demanding soccer drills that required total, low-, and moderate-intensity running, accelerations, and decelerations. Given the fact that these activities are related to the intensity of the aerobic threshold [37,38], constantly higher RTL of these variables (i.e., greater TDr, LIDr, ACCr and DECr on MD-5) probably allowed players to achieve a better adaptation of their aerobic capacities. Considering the fact that poor endurance preparation of players results in a rapid increase in fatigue, a greater number of errors, and more frequent loss of one-on-one plays [39], a better adaptation of the aerobic capacities during training will probably result in the ability to manage prolonged fatigue during the matches.…”