What's in a game? A systems approach to enhancing performance analysis in football.

Scott Mclean,Adam D Gorman,Colin Solomon,Gemma J M Read,Paul M Salmon,Jaime Sampaio

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0172565

Scott Mclean, Adam D Gorman + Show 4 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0172565

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Journal: PloS one	Publication Date: Feb 17, 2017
Citations: 49	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: University of the Sunshine Coast

Abstract

PurposePerformance analysis (PA) in football is considered to be an integral component of understanding the requirements for optimal performance. Despite vast amounts of research in this area key gaps remain, including what comprises PA in football, and methods to minimise research-practitioner gaps. The aim of this study was to develop a model of the football match system in order to better describe and understand the components of football performance. Such a model could inform the design of new PA methods.MethodEight elite level football Subject Method Experts (SME’s) participated in two workshops to develop a systems model of the football match system. The model was developed using a first-of-its-kind application of Cognitive Work Analysis (CWA) in football. CWA has been used in many other non-sporting domains to analyse and understand complex systems.ResultUsing CWA, a model of the football match ‘system’ was developed. The model enabled identification of several PA measures not currently utilised, including communication between team members, adaptability of teams, playing at the appropriate tempo, as well as attacking and defending related measures.ConclusionThe results indicate that football is characteristic of a complex sociotechnical system, and revealed potential new and unique PA measures regarded as important by SME’s, yet not currently measured. Importantly, these results have identified a gap between the current PA research and the information that is meaningful to football coaches and practitioners.

Highlights

Since the 1960s, football researchers have investigated the physiological, technical, and tactical components of football to determine the key performance indicators (KPIs) that predict successful performance [1, 2]
The results indicate that football is characteristic of a complex sociotechnical system, and revealed potential new and unique performance analysis (PA) measures regarded as important by subject matter experts (SME’s), yet not currently measured
These results have identified a gap between the current PA research and the information that is meaningful to football coaches and practitioners

Summary

Introduction

Since the 1960s, football researchers have investigated the physiological, technical, and tactical components of football to determine the key performance indicators (KPIs) that predict successful performance [1, 2]. Despite more than five decades of research in this area, current football PA methods remain beset by various issues, including a lack of standardised operational definitions, a lack of match context, and the discrete measurement of isolated variables [1, 4]. Previous PA research has had only a minimal impact on practice [5, 6], suggesting a lack of transferability of research outputs to practice [1, 5]. One reason for this is that football match performance has not yet been described in its entirety. There remains a substantial number of features that need to be defined and measured in football PA to ensure that the data are of benefit to practitioners [1, 5]

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