GPS-based performance analysis in amateur football: Match evaluation relative to players’ tactical roles

Abstract

The aim of this study was to assess the physical performance of amateur football players based on their positional roles in official matches of the Greek Amateur Regional League 2022-2023. Eighteen players (mean age 25.8±5.3 years) from two teams1 were included, with data from 85 match-play instances across 18 official matches analyzed. Players were categorized according to their team’s formation according to their team’s formation, comprising of nineteen Center Backs (CB), nineteen (n=19) Full Backs (FB), seventeen Central Midfielders (CM), seventeen Forwards (F), and thirteen Wide Midfielders-Wingers (WM). The covered distances of the starting line-up outfield players who completed the 90min in their team’s matches were recorded in five intensity zones. For the comparison of the independent variables (“positional role”, “match location” and “match outcome” in relation to the “intensity zones”), the multivariate analysis of variance was used (GLM) along with the post-hoc Bonferroni test. The descriptive statistics presented that the amount of the covered distances by the amateur players were 8654±897m in home and 8900±844m in away matches. The MANOVA recorded significant differences in the covered distances in all match-play intensity zones in relation to the positional role of the studied players. In addition, the MANOVA showed no significant differences in amateur players’ match-play performance in all intensity zones regarding the match location. Similarly, the statistics showed no significant differences in amateur players’ match-play performance in all intensity zones regarding the match winning or losing outcome. In conclusion, the present study proved that the contextual variables, such as in-season match location or match outcome, could equally differentiate the match play performance across all positions of the studied amateur players.