The Influence of Playing Formation on Physical Demands and Technical-Tactical Actions According to Playing Positions in an Elite Soccer Team

Abstract

The aim of this study was to examine the differences in the physical demands and technical-tactical actions encountered by soccer players between two playing formations (1-4-2-3-1 and 1-4-4-2) for each playing position. Twenty-three professional male soccer players who played 31 official matches participated in this study. Players were classified according to their playing position: central defenders (CD), wide defenders (WD), central midfielders (CM), wide midfielders (WM), offensive midfielders (OM) and forwards (FW). The physical demands were collected as total distance (TD), distance covered in different speed thresholds, and number of accelerations and decelerations. Also, the technical-tactical variables were recorded. The results showed that the 1-4-2-3-1 playing formation demanded decelerations between 2-4 m·s2 (p = 0.027; ES = 0.26) in comparison with 1-4-4-2 for all players. Likewise, forwards (FW) and central midfielders (CM) registered higher physical demands playing with the 1-4-2-3-1 compared to the 1-4-4-2 formation. Regarding the technical-tactical actions, they showed differences between the playing positions of the two playing formations. . The findings suggest coaches prescribe specific training programs based on the influence of the playing formation and playing position on the physical demands and technical-tactical actions encountered by players during official match-play.

Running Performance of High-Level Soccer Player Positions Induces Significant Muscle Damage and Fatigue Up to 24 h Postgame

“…Other studies by Dellal et al (2010 , 2011) reported that forwards sprinted the greatest distance than other playing positions during the French First League, the Spanish LaLiga, and the English FA Premier League soccer matches. These contradictions may be explained by the fact that each team has a specific playing formation, opposition level, tactics, and physical fitness of players ( Al’Hazzaa et al, 2001 ; Aquino et al, 2017 ; Sarmento et al, 2018 ; Slimani et al, 2019 ; Arjol-Serrano et al, 2021 ). Therefore, it seems that practitioners would adopt position-specific training programs for their players.…”

Does Technical Match Performance in Professional Soccer Depend on the Positional Role or the Individuality of the Player?

“…On the other hand, if a player played on two positional roles (e.g., ‘center back in 4-4-2’ and ‘full back in 4-4-2’ ) while the formation (e.g., 4-4-2) did not change, he was included in the sample. A minimum of four games per positional role was used to account for the variability of technical performance between matches and to minimize the influence of contextual factors ( Bradley et al, 2011 ; Aquino et al, 2019 ; Arjol-Serrano et al, 2021 ). As a result, 13 players were included in the study sample.…”

“…The technical performance was analyzed using the number of dribblings, passes, and ball possessions. Throughout previous studies that investigated technical match performance, ball possessions, passes and dribblings were the most frequently analyzed parameters ( Bradley et al, 2011 ; Aquino et al, 2019 ; Arjol-Serrano et al, 2021 ). Based on the covered distance of the ball, passes were divided into three categories [short (<10 m), medium (10 ≥ 30 m), long (>30 m)].…”

“…Further, the technical performance of both wide and central midfielders is characterized by a higher number of ball possessions compared to other positions ( Dellal et al, 2010 ). Relating to the tactical formation players in a 3-5-2 formation cover more total distance ( Bradley et al, 2011 ; Palucci Vieira et al, 2018 ; Aquino et al, 2019 ) and players in a 4-2-3-1 formation accelerate more often ( Tierney et al, 2016 ; Arjol-Serrano et al, 2021 ) than in other tactical formations. Moreover, players in a 4-4-2 formation play more passes than players in other formations ( Bradley et al, 2011 ; Arjol-Serrano et al, 2021 ).…”

“…Further, the results throughout the studies become more consistent. For example, previous studies revealed that the physical match performance of central defenders, wide defenders, and attackers is higher in a 3-5-2 formation than in a 4-4-2 formation ( Tierney et al, 2016 ; Baptista et al, 2019 ; Borghi et al, 2020 ; Modric et al, 2020 ; Arjol-Serrano et al, 2021 ). An example that illustrates this connection once again is that center backs cover the greatest sprinting distance in a 3-5-2 formation ( Baptista et al, 2019 ; Modric et al, 2020 ) and the least sprinting distance in a 4-4-2 formation ( Modric et al, 2020 ; Arjol-Serrano et al, 2021 ).…”