Performance profile in elite Italian football players

Abstract

In recent decades, technology related to motion tracking in soccer has developed markedly and it is actually used to analyze soccer performance. We investigate a top-level Italian football season during home league matches for the season 2003-04 through a vision based tracking system (Digital Stadium) and data has been subsequently analyzed by the software “Physical Analysis” with the purpose of defining a performance profile in according with the position on the field. All distances covered at different speed by each player have been recorded and analyzed. Our findings confirmed previous researches stating that position on the field is a significant factor in determining performance profile in soccer. No difference among first and second half has been found in distance covered at all speed. Different profiles, in according with position on the field, have been identified: midfielder performance is characterized by high distance covered at low-medium intensity, elevate number of sprint for short distances, recoveries for short period of time; strikers are mainly covering long distances at high speed intensity, trough sprinting for medium-long distances and consistent recovery intervals; defenders model of performance is in between the profiles of strikers and midfielders, with long distance covered at low intensity speed alternate with long sprints and recoveries