Decomposing the variability of match physical performance in professional soccer: Implications for monitoring individuals

Abstract

The aims of this study were to establish sources of variability in match physical performance of professional soccer players and provide a method for monitoring individual between-match changes. Eleven players meeting the final inclusion criteria were monitored through an entire inseason competition phase (n = 240 individual match observations, median [range] match observations per player = 21 [15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31]). Ten-Hertz global positioning systems were used to measure match total distance (TD), total high-speed running distance (≥ 21 km•h -1 ; HSRD), total accelerations (TAcc) and maximum running velocity (Vmax). Between-player, between-position, between-match and within-player variability were determined through linear mixed effects models. These data were then used to establish the practical significance of individual changes using a Minimum Effects Testing framework. All sources of variability were greater for HSRD (13-36%) when compared with all other metrics (<6%). Using combined between-match and within-player variability along with the smallest worthwhile change (0.2 × between-player SD), between-match individual changes of ±~10-15% in TD, TAcc and Vmax were established as practically significant. For HSRD, these thresholds were considerably higher (≥60%). In conclusion, the ability for soccer practitioners to identify meaningful changes in match physical performance can aid decision making around player management following competition. Our study provides a method to flag changes beyond the normal match-to-match variability and by a substantial magnitude. This may have implications for recovery but should be combined with other sources of data (internal load and response) and used only as an adjunct to practitioner domain knowledge, experience and expertise.

Impact of match-related contextual variables on weekly training load in a professional soccer team: a full season study

“…Five external load variables were collected from training and competitive matches: total distance covered, high-speed running distance (HSRD, above 18 km·h -1 ), high metabolic load distance (HMLD, above 25.5 W·kg -1 ), player load (calculated through the vector sum of accelerometry-derived measures from vertical, anterior-posterior and medial-lateral movements) and the total number of body impacts (collisions registered by the accelerometers with a magnitude above 3G) [ 9 , 31 – 34 ]. External training load was reported as the mean volume of work during the training days from the microcycle (i.e., training periods which count from the first training day of the period to the following match) [ 13 , 21 ].…”

No sport for old players. A longitudinal study of aging effects on match performance in elite soccer

“…90 min) for at least five seasons. 10 In addition, all observations from matches which included a player dismissal were excluded. Thus, a total of 14,092 individual match observations were analyzed, with a mean of 15.2 ± 7.0 observations per player and season.…”

Match-related physical performance in professional soccer: Position or player specific?

“…While these individual differences can to some extent be explained by the individual playing style, another important factor that should be acknowledged in this regard is the variability of physical match performance [8,20,21,32,33]. In particular, it has been shown that variability differs between playing positions and the performance parameter in question [32,33]. Therefore, especially on the individual level, it is complex to determine whether a real change in performance has occurred [32].…”

“…In particular, it has been shown that variability differs between playing positions and the performance parameter in question [32,33]. Therefore, especially on the individual level, it is complex to determine whether a real change in performance has occurred [32].…”