Representative Design and Performance Analysis in Soccer

Bruno Travassos

CIDESD, Department of Sport Sciences, University of Beira Interior, Convento de Sto António, 6200-001 Covilhã, Portugal

Keywords: Soccer, Tactical Evaluation, Representative Design.

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to show how evaluation of the tactical demands of training exercises and its

comparison with match performance can improve the understanding of players and teams’ performance. For

that, based on the concept of representative design of practice tasks we present some issues that need to be

considered to measure and compare the spatial-temporal relations that sustain the tactical behaviors of

players and teams in training exercises and competition.

1 INTRODUCTION

Based on recent technological developments (e.g.,

game analysis software, remote sensor technology or

GPS systems), the capacity to obtain and process

data in real time, both in training and competition

has been largely improved. Today it is possible to

capture real-time notational, positional and motion

variables of players, which can be combined and

synchronized with the video footage of players to

understand team performance (Travassos et al.,

2013).

Despite the amount of information produced by

performance analysts, as well as the increasing

interest in the comparison between training and

match performance, an actual challenge for

performance analysis in soccer remains “how to get

meaningful information into the hands – and minds

– of the people who are in a position to make

effective use of it” (Alamar and Mehrotra, 2011).

2 FROM PHYSIOLOGICAL TO

TACTICAL EVALUATION

Over the last years, the physical and physiological

demands of training sessions and competitions were

easily and accurately assessed through the external

and internal workload of players. However, the

evaluation of the tactical demands of training

exercises and its comparison with match

performance has received little attention in literature

(see, for instance, the claim of Hill-Hass et al.,

2011).

To improve the tactical evaluation of players and

teams, an important concept to consider is the

representative design of practice task (Travassos et

al., 2012, Stoffregen et al., 2003). The concept of

representative design emphasizes the correspond-

dence between the tactical demands of competition

and the informational structure inherent to the

training exercises across practice sessions. When

performance indicators measured during competition

did not consider the game context that sustain that

behaviors of players and teams (e.g., number of

losing passes), or even when the practice exercises

for performance evaluation of players results in the

removal of game information sources that players

use to constrain their actions (e.g., pre-defined

passing actions or emergent actions based on for

example verbal information), seems to lose the

understanding of how players really perform in

competitive environments (Travassos et al., 2012,

Pinder et al., 2011, Dicks et al., 2010, Vilar et al.,

2012).

Assuring the representativeness in the practice

tasks, coaches may promote the transfer from

training to competition once players and teams seek

to explore the performance environment and achieve

their goals similarly in both environments. Thus, to

increase the value of performance analysis

information, for performance analysts and coaches,

there is a need to contextualize the actions of players

and teams on the game dynamics, by considering,

for example, the place on the field were the actions

occur or the type of opposition used by the opponent

team (high pressure / low pressure, zonal / individual

defense) (Duarte et al., 2013, Malta and Travassos,

Travassos B..

Representative Design and Performance Analysis in Soccer.

 2014 SCITEPRESS (Science and Technology Publications, Lda.)

2014). Also, by measuring the spatial-temporal

relations that players explore during cooperative and

competitive interactions in specific game

environments allows performance analysts and

coaches to measure the tactical capabilities of

players and teams and, also, to evaluate the level of

transfer of players and teams’ performance from

specific training exercises to competition. For

instance, by measuring the preferential couplings

between players over the game, it is possible to

identify the spatial-temporal relations that constraint

game dynamics of a certain team playing against

different opponents (Folgado et al., 2014), and

compare them with the same relations that occur on

the training sessions. Also it is possible to measure

how the manipulation of practice tasks can

constraint the players and team behaviors (Travassos

et al., 2014). With this information coaches can

improve the evaluation of the team and design most

appropriate practice tasks for the needs of their

teams.

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