TY - JOUR
T1 - The porous high-press?
T2 - An experimental approach investigating tactical behaviours from two pressing strategies in football
AU - Low, Benedict
AU - Rein, Robert
AU - Raabe, Dominik
AU - Schwab, Sebastian
AU - Memmert, Daniel
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - The aim of this study was to analyse footballers’ tactical behaviours from their position data, as an effect of two contrasting pressing strategies, high-press defending and deep-defending, using a trial-based experimental approach. Sixty-nine youth footballers participated in this 11 versus 11 study, performing 72 trials of attack versus defence, in a counterbalanced crossover study design. Players’ position data were captured using a local positioning system, and processed to calculate measures of inter-team distance, trial duration, distance to nearest opponent, dispersion, team length, team width, team shape, space control gain, inter-line distance, and individual area. This was augmented by the notational analyses of passes. The findings showed that using a high-press defending strategy leads to: closer inter-team distance; larger dispersion, due to a longer team length; and larger inter-line distances between defenders, midfielders, and forwards. The resulting effects on the attacking team include reduced ball possession time; larger individual areas for attacking midfielders and forwards; longer team length; and more penetrative passes performed. Some differences in marking behaviour were also observed. Consequently, the study recommends that high-press defending be used sparingly due to these trade-offs.
AB - The aim of this study was to analyse footballers’ tactical behaviours from their position data, as an effect of two contrasting pressing strategies, high-press defending and deep-defending, using a trial-based experimental approach. Sixty-nine youth footballers participated in this 11 versus 11 study, performing 72 trials of attack versus defence, in a counterbalanced crossover study design. Players’ position data were captured using a local positioning system, and processed to calculate measures of inter-team distance, trial duration, distance to nearest opponent, dispersion, team length, team width, team shape, space control gain, inter-line distance, and individual area. This was augmented by the notational analyses of passes. The findings showed that using a high-press defending strategy leads to: closer inter-team distance; larger dispersion, due to a longer team length; and larger inter-line distances between defenders, midfielders, and forwards. The resulting effects on the attacking team include reduced ball possession time; larger individual areas for attacking midfielders and forwards; longer team length; and more penetrative passes performed. Some differences in marking behaviour were also observed. Consequently, the study recommends that high-press defending be used sparingly due to these trade-offs.
KW - Tactical behaviour
KW - collective movement behaviour
KW - defending
KW - soccer
KW - tactical analysis
UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/e12c2756-556c-3a68-9207-ee496245d0af/
U2 - 10.1080/02640414.2021.1925424
DO - 10.1080/02640414.2021.1925424
M3 - Journal articles
SN - 0264-0414
VL - 39
SP - 2199
EP - 2210
JO - Journal of Sports Sciences
JF - Journal of Sports Sciences
IS - 19
ER -