Evolution of football match analysis research

The Journal of Sports Sciences has a strong history of publishing applied research in football. Many of these highly cited match analysis studies improve our understanding of the complex interactions among the technical, physical and tactical requirements of football (Bangsbo, Mohr, & Krustrup, 2006; Bradley et al., 2009; Mohr, Krustrup, & Bangsbo, 2003). A PubMed search shows that since first publication in 1983, the Journal of Sports Sciences has published 368 papers on various topics related to football, with 68 review and original papers related to match and training analyses (Figure 1). A goal of the editorial board of Science and Medicine in Football special issue is to build on this work and provide authors with an outlet where they can continue to publish this high-quality work in football match analysis. In contrast to the first match analysis study that utilised a labour-intensive pen-and-paper method to obtain relatively crude measures of player activity profiles (Reilly & Thomas, 1976), recent advancements in technology (i.e. commercial match analysis systems and wearable microtechnologies) now make data collection a comparatively simple task. One advantage of the increased data availability is that investigators can overcome a major limitation of low sample sizes that were common in earlier studies. Consequently, there has been an increase in studies that examine important issues in football, such as the temporal evolution in match activity profiles, comparisons of match requirements of different leagues, along with the impact of tactical approaches and other contextual factors such as match location, strength of opposition, playing schedules and scoreline upon the match activity profiles and technical demands (for review see Sarmento et al. (2014)). Whilst significant progress has been made in improving our understanding of the activity and technical demands of football – particularly at the elite level – additional work is required to better integrate research directly to day-to-day activities in football clubs. Furthermore, work is required to fully develop our understanding of valid indications of match performance and competitive success (Carling, 2013). To address this gap, future investigations using match data might also be used to provide real-world insight into optimal approaches for player preparation by integrating sources of information about competition structure, training content and load periodisation, player fitness and fatigue status. Moreover, new analytical techniques that have been used in other team sports such as social network or expected value outcomes may also be used to assess the efficacy of various tactical approaches and used to inform the development of new tactical approaches. However, the impact of any approach will likely be best achieved through working closely with coaches to identify ecologically relevant problems. Such collaboration will provide the scientists with improved context of real problems on the football pitch and provide specific direction for future work. Unsurprisingly, the evolution in football match analyses appears to have been predicted by Professor Tom Reilly in his first editorial for this journal. In his editorial, Tom stated that “As sport and exercise grow in popularity and commercial impact, they are increasingly influenced by modern technology, novel applications of science being promoted to help solve some of the questions presented by intense activity, and to enhance performance” (Reilly, 1983). Tom saw the future well, and it is hoped that his vision is represented by the focus of this supplement. The current issue contains seven papers that examine important issues around match Figure 1. Football match and training analysis papers published in the Journal of Sports Sciences (source: PubMed, 27 October 2014). Journal of Sports Sciences, 2014 Vol. 32, No. 20, 1829–1830, http://dx.doi. org/10.1080/02640414.2014. 985450