The influence of floaters on players’ tactical behaviour in small-sided and conditioned soccer games

Abstract

6This study examined players' tactical behaviours based on core tactical principles during 7 small-sided and conditioned games (SSCG) with and without floaters on the sidelines. 8 A total of 24,068 tactical actions performed by 168 Under-17 academy soccer players 9 were assessed using the System of Tactical Assessment in Soccer (FUT-SAT; Teoldo, 12 revealed that players showed different tactical behaviours depending on the SSCG 13 format and playing phase. In "Floaters off" SSCG, players more frequently performed 14 the core tactical principles of concentration during the defensive phase and penetration 15 for the offensive phase of play creating more opportunities for 1 vs. 1 situations. In 16 contrast, in the "Floaters sidelines" SSCG, players made more effective use of playing 17 space (width and length) in the opponent's half during the offensive phase; and limited 18 the space for the opponent by compacting the defence in their own half (defensive unity) 19 due to numerical disadvantage during defensive phase. Findings suggest that the use of 20 floaters (on the sidelines) encourage players to keep ball possession during offensive 21 organisation, as well as promote the team's defensive stability by decreasing the spaces 22 between teammates during defensive organisation.23 24

How Does the Adjustment of Training Task Difficulty Level Influence Tactical Behavior in Soccer?

“…In general, these results were already expected, since we decreased task difficulty level by introducing three floaters in the game. Through specific performance indicators used in the present study, such as Passes and Ball touches, we observed that the LD-SSCG stimulates teams to keep ball possession, since these games enabled a greater number of passes and ball touches, corroborating with Padilha, Guilherme, Serra-Olivares, Roca, and Teoldo (2017). Other research has also found that the presence of inside or outside floaters stimulates teams to keep ball possession (Castellano, Silva, Usabiaga, & Barreira, 2016).…”

Influence of floaters and positional status on players’ tactical, physical, and physiological responses in soccer small-sided games

“…A total of 32 soccer players, 16 U-13 (VO 2 max estimated: 46.01 ± 2.73 ml/kg/min; height: 156.2 ± 9.40 cm; weight: 46.5 ± 8.37 kg) and 16 U-14 (VO 2 max: 47.91 ± 2.43 ml/kg/min; height: 166.8 ± 7.34 cm; weight: 55.9 ± 8.52 kg) participated in this study. Goalkeepers were not evaluated, as previously reported in the literature on ssG [9,10]. the players belonged to a team that participated in national competitions and presented no injuries at the moment of the study.…”

“…Notwithstanding, the literature shows that players' technical performance is influenced by ssG type [1]. In this article, we focused on the influence of floaters during ssG on both physical [8] and tactical aspects [6,9], providing a more integrated perspective of the use of ssG training. It is suggested that the inclusion of these additional players (always to the offensive team, inside or outside the pitch) promotes higher ball circulation, since the usual absence of a defender assigned to this player allows safe passing possibilities [10].…”

“…In addition, the presence of floaters is stated to decrease the ssG physical demands in comparison with regular formats [8], indicating a slower pacing strategy to achieve better shooting opportunities and highly coordinated movements between players in defence in order to protect the most important zones of the pitch [11]. In these studies, the floaters were usually adopted in two different ways: in-floater (inside the pitch), as a regular player who changes the team every time ball possession is changed (always in attack) [12], or outfloaters (on the sidelines), as an alternative for a player in ball possession to execute a wall pass [5,9]. In both cases, the floater can be extensively used for ball progression during the game, since their position is not constrained by any rules of the game and, consequently, they can occupy an in-depth position on the game field.…”

How and why do soccer coaches use small-sided games in the training process?

“…Therefore, training exercises should stimulate perception-action cycles [7], as characteristic of the competition context, through manipulating practice areas (e.g., field width and length) and game objectives and rules (task conditions) [8,9]. Applying small-sided games (SSGs) allows to coordinate players at different moments of the game and promote tactical principles that guide the playing style of the team [10,11].…”