Comparison of high-intensity patterns between possession games and small-sided games in professional soccer

Abstract

Background: Many specific games are practiced with the aim of maintaining the possession of the ball by the team. Among them, possession games (POG) are similar to small-sided games (SSG), and as such, have a few different characteristics. Objective: The aim of this study was to compare high-intensity patterns of professional soccer players in relation to the positional role between POG and SSG in professional soccer. Methods: A descriptive analysis was conducted over one season, during typical training ses-sions with 5 vs. 5 designs and 10 official matches. Twenty-six male professional players (age 24.7 ± 5 years, body mass 73.6 ± 7 kg, body height 178.4 ± 6.2 cm) were classified into five positional roles: central defender, wide defender, midfielder, wing and forward. Players’ locomotor activity was recorded using GPS (Openfield-Catapult™). Data on total distance, player-load, work rates (distance covered at speed > 14.9 km/h per min and distance covered at speed > 19.9 km/h per min), the number of runs in work rates, very high-intensity accelerations-decelerations (> 3.5 / 19.9 km/h per min). Regarding accelerations, SSG outperformed POG in almost all game positions (p