Abstract

Predicting performance in soccer games has been a major focus within talent identification and development. Past research has mainly used performance levels, such as elite vs. non-elite players, as the performance to predict (i.e. the criterion). Moreover, these studies have mainly focused on isolated performance attributes as predictors of soccer performance levels. However, there has been an increasing interest in finer grained criterion measures of soccer performance, as well as representative assessments at the level of performance predictors. In this study, we first determined the degree to which 7-vs-7 small-sided games can be considered as representative of 11-vs-11 games. Second, we assessed the validity of individual players' small-sided game performance in predicting their 11-vs-11 game performance on a continuous scale. Moreover, we explored the predictive validity for 11-vs-11 game performance of several physiological and motor tests in isolation. Sixty-three elite youth players of a professional soccer academy participated in 11 to 17 small-sided games and six 11-vs-11 soccer games. In-game performance indicators were assessed through notational analysis and combined into an overall offensive and defensive performance measure, based on their relationship with game success. Physiological and motor abilities were assessed using a sprint, endurance, and agility test. Results showed that the small-sided games were faster paced, but representative of 11-vs-11 games, with the exception of aerial duels. Furthermore, individual small-sided game performance yielded moderate predictive validities with 11-vs-11 game performance. In contrast, the physiological and motor tests yielded small to trivial relations with game performance. Altogether, this study provides novel insights into the application of representative soccer assessments and the use of continuous criterion measures of soccer performance.

Highlights

  • Professional soccer organizations strive to identify, select, and develop players who have the potential to become elite soccer players

  • This study provides encouraging first results on the usefulness of small-sided games (SSGs) performance in predicting 11-vs-11 game performance

  • We demonstrated that SSGs are faster paced, but representative of 11-vs-11 soccer games in terms of the distribution of performance indicators

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Summary

Introduction

Professional soccer organizations strive to identify, select, and develop players who have the potential to become elite soccer players. Performance prediction using small-sided games our sample was relatively small, and the club and team age categories can be derived from the author affiliations and manuscript text, this might lead to indirect identification. In consultation with the Ethical Committee Psychology of the University of Groningen, two restrictions on openly sharing the data were applied. Data can only be accessed by qualified researchers, that is, researchers affiliated with universities or independent, non-commercial research institutes. Researchers must sign a confidentiality agreement, stating that the downloader does not share the data with persons who are not collaborators on the project the data are used for. Requests will be handled by a staff member who is not one of the authors

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