Introduction

Alongside physical and technical elements, the performance of a professional soccer player is characterized by tactical aspects1. Moreover, playing position and tactical formations are well-known factors in soccer that have gained importance in research in recent years.

The physical, as well as the technical match performance of a professional soccer player, is highly affected by the playing position (i.e. central defender, wide defender, central/wide midfielder, striker)2,3. Contrary to this, the effects of the tactical formation (i.e. 4-4-2 vs. 3-5-2) on physical and technical match performance seem to be lower4,5. However, differences in match performance metrics between tactical formations were indicated earlier in the past6.

Previous studies investigated the isolated effects of playing position and tactical formation on match performance and, therefore, the results are limited. To summarize, combining both tactical factors (formation & position) seem to provide further value 7,8.

Therefore, we aimed to investigate the effects of playing positions in different tactical formations on physical and technical match performance in the German Bundesliga.