Physiological and morphological differences of elite soccer players according to their team position

Introduction

Body physique and physiology play an important role in sports. Especially in soccer, each team position has its own specifications. The purpose of this study was to analyse the anthropometric and physiological differences of soccer players according to their team position.

Methods

72 male subjects participated in this study (18 goalkeepers, 18 defenders, 18 midfielders, and 18 forwards). The age of the participants ranged from 18 to 36 years old. The criterion measures of this investigation were: stature, weight, Wingate anaerobic test, vertical jump -using force platform "Kistler"-, and percentage of body fat according to Yuhasz technique and calculations of 6 skin fold sites. Statistical analysis included analysis of variance (1-way Anova) to detect possible significant differences between groups and if significant the Tukey’s post hoc test was used to evaluate the source of significance. No statistical differences were present regarding age between the four groups of participants (p<.05).

Results

Forwards demonstrated significantly higher vertical jump (43.1 ± 4.2 cm vs. 39.9 ± 0.7 cm) and significant lower amounts of fat tissue compared to goalkeepers (8.5 ± 1.5 vs. 10.5 ± 1.7). On the other hand, goalkeepers revealed significant higher scores in Wingate anaerobic test than midfielders (8.1% difference). Goalkeepers were also significant taller than all groups (184.5 ± 1.1 vs. 177.5 ± 4.2, 177.9 ± 3.1, and 178.7 ± 5.5 for defenders, midfielders, and forwards respectively). The results of this investigation indicated that goalkeepers were also significantly heavier than the midfielders (79.9 ± 1.9 vs. 76.1 ± 3.7).

Discussion / Conclusions

The findings of this study suggest that the bigger discrepancies regarding stature, body weight, and vertical jump among groups were mostly between goalkeepers and forwards. In general, goalkeepers appeared to be taller, heavier, and with higher percentage of fat tissue than all the other groups (mathematically and statistically). Evidence in the relative literature supports this conclusion [1]. Further research is needed to analyse the position - related differences in anthropometrical and physiological characteristics, according to the exact team position (i.e. full backs vs. centre backs e.t.c.)

References

[1]. Matkovic B.R., Misigoj-Durakovic M., Matkovic B., Jankovic S., Ruzic L., Leko G., and Kondric M. (2003). Coll Antropol. 27 suppl. (1), 167-174.