Researchers have linked the fitness of elite soccer players to the positions they play. The ability to perform this assessment can help coaches regulate individual training loads based on a player’s position, according to a recent study.
The study found that all positions on a soccer field, except central defenders, showed a strong association between aerobic power training and high-intensity performance.
“Perhaps not surprising because center backs cover less distance and perform fewer power events than other field positions,” said Matteo Masucci, a doctoral candidate in Kinesiology and Health Sciences at the University of Waterloo. “The centre-backs face the field and control the situation. They have a slower pace and play more of a mental or tactical game. The midfielders analyze everything in front and behind and must react in both directions. Strikers must do their best to shoot at the right moment.”
The researchers worked with data from 62 Italian Serie A soccer players over a full season between 2014-15 and 2018-19 and tested whether treadmill training and lactate blood samples from the players’ earlobes Players adequately assessed aerobic fitness: the total amount of energy needed to perform a high-power event such as acceleration or deceleration.
“When combined with videos of on-field performance, our analysis showed that the link between aerobic fitness and repeated high-intensity sequences in a game varied depending on the position in which a soccer competitor played,” said Masucci, who is also a soccer coach.
It was found that during a 90-minute match, an elite soccer player can make up to 1,400 activity changes and up to 200 short multidirectional high-intensity efforts , requiring physical conditioning not only in terms of speed but also pattern changes. of movement.
Previous studies have investigated the association between aerobic fitness and soccer, but only in the speed category. Masucci said that because of the acceleration and deceleration that elite soccer players must expend, as well as the time it takes to recover from high-intensity sequences, it is also important to study high-power events that are not related to speed.
“These findings mean that coaches can use lactate blood sampling and incremental treadmill assessments to provide valuable information about soccer players,” Masucci said. “Players who have a high metabolic power distance cut-off equal to or greater than 1450 m for central defenders, 1990 m for full-backs, 2170 m for midfielders and 1670 m for forwards could be considered to have higher aerobic fitness. Therefore, when planning training and game strategy, coaches must consider these individual differences in physiological and physical performance.”
The study, Relationship between aerobic fitness and metabolic power metrics in elite male soccer players, was led by Vincenzo Manzi (Università Telematica Pegaso) and co-authored by Masucci, Giuseppe Annino, Cristian Savoia, Giuseppe Caminiti, Elvira Padua, Rosario D’ Onofrio and Ferdinando Iellamo. It was published in the journal Biology of Sport .
