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Dynamics of tactical behaviour in association football when manipulating players' space of interaction

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  • Angel Ric
  • Carlota Torrents
  • Bruno Gonçalves
  • Lorena Torres-Ronda
  • Jaime Sampaio
  • Robert Hristovski

Abstract

The analysis of positional data in association football allows the spatial distribution of players during matches to be described in order to improve the understanding of tactical-related constraints on the behavioural dynamics of players. The aim of this study was to identify how players’ spatial restrictions affected the exploratory tactical behaviour and constrained the perceptual-motor workspace of players in possession of the ball, as well as inter-player passing interactions. Nineteen professional outfield male players were divided into two teams of 10 and 9 players, respectively. The game was played under three spatial constraints: a) players were not allowed to move out of their allocated zones, except for the player in possession of the ball; b) players were allowed to move to an adjacent zone, and; c) non-specific spatial constraints. Positional data was captured using a 5 Hz interpolated GPS tracking system and used to define the configuration states of players for each second in time. The configuration state comprised 37 categories derived from tactical actions, distance from the nearest opponent, distance from the target and movement speed. Notational analysis of players in possession of the ball allowed the mean time of ball possession and the probabilities of passing the ball between players to be calculated. The results revealed that the players’ long-term exploratory behaviour decreased and their short-term exploration increased when restricting their space of interaction. Relaxing players’ positional constraints seemed to increase the speed of ball flow dynamics. Allowing players to move to an adjacent sub-area increased the probabilities of interaction with the full-back during play build-up. The instability of the coordinative state defined by being free from opponents when players had the ball possession was an invariant feature under all three task constraints. By allowing players to move to adjacent sub-areas, the coordinative state became highly unstable when the distance from the target decreased. Ball location relative to the scoring zone and interpersonal distance constitute key environmental information that constrains the players’ coordinative behaviour. Based on our results, dynamic overlap is presented as a good option to capture tactical performance. Moreover, the selected collective (i.e. relational) variables would allow coaches to identify the effects of training drills on teams and players’ behaviour. More research is needed considering these type variables to understand how the manipulation of constraints induce a more stable or flexible dynamical structure of tactical behaviour.

Suggested Citation

  • Angel Ric & Carlota Torrents & Bruno Gonçalves & Lorena Torres-Ronda & Jaime Sampaio & Robert Hristovski, 2017. "Dynamics of tactical behaviour in association football when manipulating players' space of interaction," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(7), pages 1-16, July.
  • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0180773
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0180773
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Nic James, 2006. "Notational analysis in soccer: past, present and future," International Journal of Performance Analysis in Sport, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 6(2), pages 67-81, November.
    2. Jaime Sampaio & Tim McGarry & Julio Calleja-González & Sergio Jiménez Sáiz & Xavi Schelling i del Alcázar & Mindaugas Balciunas, 2015. "Exploring Game Performance in the National Basketball Association Using Player Tracking Data," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(7), pages 1-14, July.
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    1. Valerio Ficcadenti & Roy Cerqueti & Ciro Hosseini Varde’i, 2023. "A rank-size approach to analyse soccer competitions and teams: the case of the Italian football league “Serie A"," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 325(1), pages 85-113, June.
    2. Bruno Gonçalves & Diogo Coutinho & Bruno Travassos & Hugo Folgado & Pedro Caixinha & Jaime Sampaio, 2018. "Speed synchronization, physical workload and match-to-match performance variation of elite football players," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(7), pages 1-16, July.
    3. Jonas Lutz & Daniel Memmert & Dominik Raabe & Rolf Dornberger & Lars Donath, 2019. "Wearables for Integrative Performance and Tactic Analyses: Opportunities, Challenges, and Future Directions," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(1), pages 1-26, December.
    4. Marius Ötting & Dimitris Karlis, 2023. "Football tracking data: a copula-based hidden Markov model for classification of tactics in football," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 325(1), pages 167-183, June.
    5. Ricardo Ferraz & Bruno Gonçalves & Diogo Coutinho & Rafael Oliveira & Bruno Travassos & Jaime Sampaio & Mário C. Marques, 2020. "Effects of Knowing the Task’s Duration on Soccer Players’ Positioning and Pacing Behaviour during Small-Sided Games," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(11), pages 1-12, May.

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