Influence of aerobic power on youth players’ tactical behavior and network properties during football small-sided games

(1) Background: This study aimed to compare the incidence of tactical principles, the percentage of successful tactical principles, and the network properties between higher and lower aerobic power in young football players during small-sided games. (2) Methods: Eighteen Under-17 Brazilian players w...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Authors: Gibson Moreira Praça, Raphael Brito e Sousa, Pablo Juan Greco
Format: article
Status:Published version
Publication Date:2019
Country:Brasil
Institution:Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG)
Repository:Repositório Institucional da UFMG
Language:English
OAI Identifier:oai:repositorio.ufmg.br:1843/43378
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.3390/sports7030073
http://hdl.handle.net/1843/43378
https://orcid.org/ 0000-0001-9971-7308
http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2692-0289
http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2607-5935
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Small-sided games
Football
Social network analysis
Tactical behavior
Futebol - Treinamento - Aspectos fisiológicos
Desempenho
Comportamento social
Description
Summary:(1) Background: This study aimed to compare the incidence of tactical principles, the percentage of successful tactical principles, and the network properties between higher and lower aerobic power in young football players during small-sided games. (2) Methods: Eighteen Under-17 Brazilian players were recruited. Firstly, they performed the Yo-Yo Intermittent Recovery Test Level 2, which was used to split them into two groups with higher and lower aerobic power. In the sequence, they played three vs three small-sided games within each group. The System of Tactical Assessment in Soccer was used to analyze the tactical behavior demonstrated by measuring the incidence of tactical principles and the percentage of successful principles, while the macro variables, density and clustering coefficient from social network analysis for team sports was used to analyze players’ interactions. (3) Results: No differences were reported for the incidence of tactical principles (p > 0.05, small or small-to-moderate effect sizes), the percentage of successful offensive principles (p = 0.122, small-to-moderate effect size), or the network variables (p > 0.05; small effect sizes). The lower aerobic power group demonstrated a higher percentage of successful defensive tactical principles (p = 0.043; small-to-moderate effect size). (4) Conclusions: We concluded that aerobic power has a limited impact on player behavior, indicating that players’ actions within a small-sided game are mostly constrained by other parameters.