How Football Players' Age Affect Passing Patterns of Play According to Field Location.

This study aimed to characterize the passing patterns that support collective tactical behaviour in football players of different ages (U15, U17, and U19) in different field zones. Two hundred and twenty-eight male players, divided into U15, U17, and U19, participated in the study. Cluster analysis was used to group the passes into three sizes (short, medium, and long). The chi-square test was used to analyse the effect of player age on game-passing patterns in each field zone. The results revealed that long and medium passes were used more in areas close to the goals and short passes in the middle area of the field, concerning all ages (p < 0.001). Furthermore, the analysis of the relative distance between the ball carrier and the receiver indicated that older players (U17 and U19) used more distant players to pass the ball in medium and long passes. These results can help coaches design small-sided games according to the players' ages and adjust to the field's space and the numerical relationship, thus creating a greater transfer from training to competition.

Capturing and Quantifying Tactical Behaviors in Small-Sided and Conditioned Games in Soccer: A Systematic Review.

Purpose: To systematically describe and analyze the tracking systems, the variables, and the statistical methods used to evaluate the players and teams' tactical behavior in small-sided and conditioned games (SSCGs). Methods: A search was done in Web of Science, PubMed, Science Direct, and Scielo databases to identify manuscripts published between 2008 and 2019 that manipulated small-sided and conditioned games (SSCGs) and analyzed tactical behaviors of players and teams. Results: From 349 articles identified, 31 were selected for review. To collect positional data, the global positioning system (GPS), the local position measurement (LPM) system, and TACTO were identified as reliable tracking systems. Twenty-one positional variables were identified to evaluate tactical behaviors, grouped into five main categories: team balance, playing space, width and length of playing space, and interpersonal distance. Tactical behavior patterns were analyzed using approximate entropy, sample entropy, Shannon entropy, and patterns of coordination between players and teams were analyzed using relative phase and running correlation. Discussion: The tracking systems analyzed were reliable but revealed different advantages and disadvantages of their use. Authors should define the use of each tracking system based on their purpose and level of precision required for analysis. A great duplication was observed on the variables used with similar purposes of tactical analysis. The identification of the variables according to their purpose of analysis will allow a better understanding of their use in the future.