Position Specific Running Performances in Professional Football (Soccer): Influence of Different Tactical Formations

Abstract

Running performances (RPs) are known to be important parameters of success in football (soccer), but there is a lack of studies where RPs are contextualized regarding applied tactical solutions. This study aims to quantify and analyze the differences in position-specific RPs in professional football, when games are played with three defensive players (3DP) and four defensive players (4DP). The participants here include professional football players (M ± SD, age 23.57 ± 2.84 years, body height 181.9 ± 5.17 cm, body mass 78.36 ± 4.18 kg) playing at the highest competitive level in Croatia. RPs were measured by global positioning system and classified into four groups based on playing positions: central defenders (CD; n = 47), wide defenders (WD; n = 24), midfielders (MF; n = 48), or forwards (FW; n = 19). Analysis of variance and discriminant canonical analysis are used to identify differences between 3DP and 4DP tactical solutions in terms of the RPs for each playing position. The number of accelerations and decelerations most significantly contributed to the differentiation of 3DP and 4DP among MFs (Wilks λ = 0.31, p < 0.001), with higher occurrences with 3DP. For CDs, total distance, and high-intensity running were higher in 3DP (Wilks λ = 0.66, p < 0.001). No multivariate differences were found for FW and WD players in terms of the RPs between 3DP and 4DP tactical formations. The characteristics and differences shown in this study may provide useful information for coaching staff regarding changing in-season tactical formations. Additionally, the results are useful for optimizing training programs for football players with different playing positions. When changing from 4DP to 3DP tactical formations, WDs training programs should include more of high-intensity running, while MFs training programs should be more based on short intensity activities (accelerations and decelerations).

The Effect of the COVID-19 Lockdown on the Position-Specific Match Running Performance of Professional Football Players; Preliminary Observational Study

“…Interestingly, the largest differences between MRP before and after COVID-19 lockdown matches for FWs were evidenced for highintensity running (large effect size) which includes high-speed running (19.8-25.1 km/h) and sprinting (>25.2 km/h). The main role of MFs is to organize the offense by proper ball control and passes, rather than by invasion into the opponent's area [29,31]. Therefore, MFs' game duties are most likely related to the accelerations and decelerations.…”

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 which have investigated the RP without the context of the ball possession have reported that RPs vary according to playing positions due the different tactical roles during the soccer match [8,10,13,39]. Similarly, the present study analysed the RP in the context of the ball possession and found significant differences among playing positions in the RP during both the AP (i.e., when the team has the ball in their possession) and DP (i.e., when the opponent has the ball in their possession) of the game.…”

“…However, although they are mainly defensive players, the CD's main technical roles in the DP of the game (i.e., aerial duels, tackles, positioning, and interceptions of the balls passed to the attackers) are generally more focused on reactions and accelerations than on running demands [40]. Furthermore, in some tactical formations, the CD has an important role when keeping the attack from the goalkeeper, which consequently results in the large running demands [13]. Altogether, this explains the greater RPs in the AP than the DP of the game for the CD.…”

“…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?

“…Data on the RP of the players were collected by 21 GPS devices (Vector S7, Catapult, Catapult Sports Ltd., Melbourne) with a sampling frequency of 10 Hz. The use of this tracking system has appeared in previous researches [25,26]. Such device was already investigated for metrics, and was found to be appropriately reliable and valid in sport settings (i.e., less than 1% measurement error, and 80% of common variance with running speed measured by timing gates) [19,27,28].…”