The effect of score-line on work-rate in English FA Premier League soccer

Athalie Redwood-Brown*, Peter O'Donoghue, Gemma Robinson, Paul Neilson

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

22 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Investigations finding that soccer players perform more work when the score is level than when leading or trailing have not considered hat the significant effects were due to fatigue rather than score-line. For example, two teams may be level for the early part of a game and the score diverges later on. The current study established a typical fatigue pattern using data from 79 player performances during five 0-0 drawn English FA Premier League matches. This typical fatigue pattern was used to adjust the work-rate of 90 player performances in five English FA Premier League matches where both teams were level, ahead and behind for at least 15 minutes each. There was a significant interaction between player position and score-line (p = .010) with forwards spending a greater percentage of time moving at 4 m.s-1 or faster when their team was leading than when level while defenders spent a greater percentage of time moving at 4 m.s-1 or faster when their team was trailing than when level. An explanation for this interaction effect is that forwards feel encouraged to work harder when their team has earned a lead with the work-rate of opposing defenders also increasing as a result.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)258-271
Number of pages14
JournalInternational Journal of Performance Analysis in Sport
Volume12
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Aug 2012
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Automatic player tracking
  • Game state
  • Positional role

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