Influence of Match Status on Players’ Prominence and Teams’ Network Properties During 2018 FIFA World Cup

Abstract

The analyses of players and teams’ behaviors during the FIFA World Cup may provide a better understanding on how football tactics and strategies have developed in the past few years in elite football. The Social Network Analysis (SNA) has been carried out in the investigations about passing distribution, improving the understanding on how players interact and cooperate during a match. In football official matches, studies have used the SNA as a means of coding players’ cooperation and opposition patterns. However, situational variables such as match status were previously investigated and associated with changes on teams’ dynamics within and/or between matches, but were not considered in studies based on Social Network Analysis. This study aimed to analyze the influence of match status on teams’ cooperation patterns and players’ prominence according to playing positions during 2018 FIFA World Cup. Fourteen matches of the knockout stage were analyzed. Macro and micro network measures were obtained from adjacency matrixes collected for each team, in each match status (winning, drawing, and losing). A one-way ANOVA was used to compare teams’ networks (macro-analysis variables) within each match status, while a two-way ANOVA (match status × playing position) was used to compare the micro-analysis variables. Results showed no differences between match status for macro analysis. Winning situations induced higher prominence in central midfielders (0.107; p = 0.001), wide midfielders (0.093; p = 0.001), and center forward (0.085; p = 0.001), while in losing situations lower prominence levels were observed for goalkeepers (0.044; p = 0.001) and center forward (0.074; p = 0.001). Data revealed that teams do not change macrostructures according to match status. On the other hand, the microstructures showed important adaptations regarding game styles, with changes in players’ behaviors according to playing positions. In general, the levels of centrality and prestige in players of different positions indicated a more direct play style in winning situations and a more build-up style in losing situations. These results allow a better understanding about the influence of match status on players’ and teams’ performance during high-level football competitions and may help coaches to improve athletes’ performance in these situations.

A influência do resultado momentâneo da partida na amplitude e profundidade da circulação da bola em pequenos jogos no futebol

“…Especificamente, observa-se que situações de derrota elevam a frequência de passes curtos (KONEFAŁ et al, 2018) e longos (PAIXÃO et al, 2015) dos times em jogos formais. De maneira geral, justifica-se o aumento na incidência de passes pela necessidade de circular a bola em razão da necessidade de enfrentar defesas em bloco baixo das equipes em vitória (PRAÇA et al, 2019). No presente estudo, equipes em situação de derrota apresentaram maior incidência de variações de corredor e profundidade em comparação aos times em situação de vitória.…”

Effects of match period and playing position on the individual and collective dynamics in professional soccer: a case study

“…Previous research has shown that midfielders play a major role in organizing the team's offensive phase [16][17][18] , acting as bridges between the defensive and the offensive pitches. Additionally, midfielders usually have a box-to-box function 27 resulting in 1569 passes analyzed and converted in a weighted adjacency matrix.…”

“…Besides, situational variables such as the momentary score are reported to influence players' behavior in different manners, according to playing position. Specifically, central defenders presented lower prominence in winning than in losing status, while wing forwards and center-forwards presented higher prominence in winning status 18 . These data indicate that relevant information may be obtained by analyzing different match situations, which could be missed when only the whole match is considered.…”

“…Classification of playing positions according to the area they mainly occupy in the field. Notes: GK: Goalkeeper; CD: Central Defender; FB: Fullback; CM: Central Midfielder; WF: Wide Forward; CF: Center-forward 18. …”

Which defensive tactical indicators are associated with victory in the semifinals and finals of the 2014 FIFA World Cup?

“…When observing investigations related to the tactical dimension in the literature, it can be noted that the majority of studies have concentrated their efforts on the analysis of the offensive phase of the match 9, [14][15][16][17][18] . Knowledge related to the defensive phase should not be neglected, as collective effectiveness requires the coordinated implementation of defensive tactical indicators 19,20 .…”