Análise da rede de interações nos pequenos jogos no futebol: influência do critério de composição das equipes

Abstract

Small-sided games (SSG) are a means of training of team sports. Changes in SSG characteristics (e.g., pitch size, rules, number of players per team) allow coaches to emphasize specific behaviors, according to the goal of the training session. Additionally, changes in teams' composition criteria might influence the interactions between players during teams' offensive process. Teams 'composition criteria are the rules used to divide players into teams. This study analyzed the nfluence of teams' composition criteria in the network properties during soccer small-sided games. Twelve male U-15 soccer athletes from a high-level team from the city of Curitiba participated in the study. Athletes performed four small-sided games bouts in the 3vs.3 + goalkeepers format with two team composition criteria a) three athletes from the same playing position (e.g., three forwards) on each team; and b) three athletes from different playing positions (e.g., a defender, a midfielder and a forward) in each team. Network properties (related to the team ­ macro analysis) and levels of prominence (related to the athletes ­ micro analysis) were analyzed through the Social Network Analysis. An one-way ANOVA (or KruskalWallis test for non-parametric variables) was used to compare the mean values between playing positions. For the macro analysis, an independent t-test (or Mann-Whitney test for non-parametric variables) was used. In all cases, the level of significance was set at p <0.05. Results showed lower prominence of goalkeepers compared to the other positions using both teams' composition criteria. Midfielders also presented lower prominence ompared to defenders when team were formed by athletes of the same position. In summary, changes in teams' composition criteria modify athletes' levels of prominence during 3vs.3 small-sided games.