There is a rapid growing body of knowledge regarding physical aspects of a football match due to studies using computer-assisted motion analysis. The present study used time-motion analysis and triaxial-accelerometers to obtain new insights about differences in physical profiles of elite football players across playing-positions. Player performance data in 23 official home matches from a professional football club, during two seasons were collected for analysis. Eighteen players from five different playing positions (central backs: n = 3; full-backs: n = 5; central midfielders: n = 6; wide midfielders: n = 3; and central forwards: n = 4), performing a total of 138 observations. A novel finding was that central backs and central midfielders had significantly lower work-rate in sprints, decelerations and accelerations than full-backs, wide midfielders and central forwards (p90°) than central backs. The most common distance covered in high-intensity runs (≥19.8 km·h⁻¹) for central backs, central midfielders, wide midfielders and central forwards was 1–5 m, but for full-backs was 6–10 m. This may help coaches in developing individualized training programs to meet the demands of each position in match-play.

The warm-up is considered beneficial for increasing body temperature, stimulating the neuromuscular system and overall preparing the athletes for the demands of training sessions and competitions. Even when warm-up–derived benefits are slight and transient, they may still benefit preparedness for subsequent efforts. However, sports training and competition performance are highly affected by contextual factors (e.g., how is the opponent acting?), and it is not always clear what should be the preferred warm-up modalities, structure and load for each athlete and context. Further, we propose that the warm-up can also be used as a pedagogical and training moment. The warm-up may serve several different (albeit complementary) goals (e.g., rising body temperature, neuromuscular activation, attentional focus) and be performed under a plethora of different structures, modalities, and loads. The current commentary highlights the warm-up period as an opportunity to teach or improve certain skills or physical capacities, and not only as a preparation for the subsequent efforts. Moreover, the (justified) call for individualized warm-ups would benefit from educating athletes about exploring different warm-up tasks and loads, providing a broad foundation for future individualization of the warm-up and for more active, engaged, and well-informed participation of the athletes in deciding their own warm-up practices.

Quantification of training and match load is an important method to personalize the training stimulus’ prescription to players according to their match demands. The present study used time-motion analysis and triaxial-accelerometer to quantify and compare: a) The most demanding passages of play in training sessions and matches (5-min peaks); b) and the accumulated load of typical microcycles and official matches, by playing position. Players performance data in 15 official home matches and 11 in-season microcycles were collected for analysis. Players were divided into four different playing positions: Centre-backs, wing-backs, centre midfielders, and centre forwards. The results show that match demands were overperformed for acceleration counts (acc_counts) (131%–166%) and deceleration counts (dec_counts) (108%–134%), by all positions. However, relative to match values, training values for sprint distance (sprint_dist) and high-intensity run distance (HIR_dist) were considerably lower (36%–61% and 57%–71%) than for accelerations and decelerations. The most pronounced difference on the 5-min peaks was observed in sprints (sprint_peak), with wing-backs achieving during the microcycle only 64% of the sprint_peak in matches, while centre backs, centre midfielders, and centre forwards levelled and overperformed the match values (107%, 100%, and 107%, respectively). Differences observed across playing positions in matches and microcycles underline the lack of position specificity of common training drills/sessions adopted by coaches in elite football.

The team tactical system and distribution of the football players on the pitch is considered fundamental in team performance. The present study used time-motion analysis and triaxial-accelerometers to obtain new insights about the impact of different tactical systems (1-4-5-1 and 1-3-5-2) on physical performance, across different playing positions, in a professional football team. Player performance data in fifteen official home matches was collected for analysis. The sample included twenty-two players from five playing positions (centre backs: n = 4; full-back/wide midfielder/ wing-back: n = 9; centre midfielder: n = 6 and centre forward: n = 3), making a total of 108 match observations. A novel finding was that general match physical demands do not differ considerably between these tactical formations, probably because match-to-match variability (variation of players’ running profile from match-to-match) might be higher than the differences in physical performance between tactical systems. However, change of formation had a different impact across playing positions, with centre backs playing in 1-4-5-1 performing significant more HIRcounts than in 1-3-5-2 (p = 0.031). Furthermore, a medium effect size (r = 0.33) was observed in HIRdist, with wide players covering higher distances when playing in 1-3-5-2 than in 1-4-5-1. These findings may help coaches to develop individualised training programs to meet the demands of each playing position according to the tactical system adopted.

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the physical performance of elite female football players during match play along with transient alterations in running performance following 1‐ and 5‐min univariate peak periods. 54 elite female players from four top‐level Norwegian teams were monitored for one season (n = 393 match observations), and physical performance data collected using STATSport GPS APEX. Results revealed significant differences in physical performance between the positions during full match play, particularly between wide and central players. Both full backs (FBs) and wide midfielders (WMs) covered more total distance (TD), high‐speed running distance (HSRD), and sprint distance (SpD) than center backs (CBs) (p < 0.05–0.001), while WMs also covered more HSRD than both central midfielders (CMs) (p < 0.01) and forwards (FWs) (p < 0.05), and more acceleration ‐and deceleration distance (Acc_dist and Dec_dist) than both CBs and CMs (p < 0.01–0.001). A similar pattern was observed for the peak period analysis, with FBs and WMs covering more SpD in peak 1 min than CBs and CM (p < 0.001) and more SpD in peak 5‐min than CBs, CMs, and FWs (p < 0.001). Irrespective of the variable analyzed, greater distances were covered during the peak 5‐min period than in the next‐5 and mean 5‐min periods (p < 0.001). Significant (p < 0.001), but small to trivial (Cohen's D_z: 0.07–0.20), decreases in distance covered were also observed for each variable following each univariate peak 5‐min period. In conclusion, practitioners should account for differences in physical performance when developing training programs for female football players and be aware of transient reductions in physical performance following univariate peak 1‐ and 5‐min periods. Specifically, the very high intensity in 1‐min peak periods adds support to the principal of executing speed endurance activities during training to mirror and be prepared for the physical demands of match play.

Peak locomotor demands are considered as key metrics for conditioning drills prescription and training monitoring. However, research in female football has focused on absolute values when reporting match demands, leading to sparse information being provided regarding the degrees of variability of such metrics. Thus, the aims of this study were to investigate the sources of variability of match physical performance parameters in female football players and to provide a framework for the interpretation of meaningful changes between matches. 54 female players from four top-level clubs were monitored during one season. GPS APEX (STATSports, Northern Ireland), with a sampling frequency of 10 Hz, were used in 60 official matches (n = 393) to determine the full-match and 1-min peak locomotor demands of total distance (TD), high-speed running distance (HSRD), sprint distance (SpD), accelerations and decelerations (Acc/Dec) and peak speed (Pspeed). For each variable, the between-team, between-match, between-position, between-player, and within-player variability was estimated using linear mixed-effect modelling. With exception to SpD (29.4 vs. 31.9%), all other metrics presented a higher observed match-to-match variability in the 1-min peaks than in the full-match (6.5 vs. 4.6%; 18.7% vs. 15.9%; 12.9 vs. 11.7%; for TD, HSRD and Acc/Dec, respectively). With the exception of SpD, higher changes in 1-min peaks than in full-match values are required to identify meaningful changes in each variable. Different sources of variability seem to impact differently the match physical performance of female football players. Furthermore, to identify meaningful changes, higher changes in 1-min peaks than in full-match values are required.