The Match Demands of Elite Women’s Football: Implications for Future Integrative Research Frameworks

THE MATCH DEMANDS OF ELITE WOMEN’S

FOOTBALL: IMPLICATIONS FOR FUTURE INTEGRATIVE RESEARCH FRAMEWORKS

FEATURE / DR PAUL BRADLEY

Introduction

The popularity of women’s football has increased exponentially in recent years with both the number of registered players and spectators continuing to grow across the world (Bradley and Vescovi, 2015). For instance, approximately 13 million females are now playing organised football with around 3 million registered as players (FIFA, 2019). The FIFA Women’s World Cup is currently the largest women’s sporting spectacle on the planet with >1 billion in broadcast audiences and over a million attendees for the 2019 competition in France (Bradley and Scott, 2020). This increased popularity has resulted in a concomitant increase in the number of investigations examining the match demands of the women’s game (Andersson et al., 2010; Bradley et al., 2014b; Datson et al., 2017; Mohr et al., 2008; Park et al., 2019). Compared to men’s football, the female game is still in an embryonic stage in relation to research coverage (Kryger et al., 2021). Despite a gender disparity in football science research, there has been an increased focus on all aspects of the women’s game in recent years or a sort of ‘awakening’. This is especially evident in the quantity and quality of papers in the match demands area of female football, hence the need for this specific piece. Thus, it is expected that impactful research will be more plentiful in future in not just match analysis research but all aspects of the female game. This information is very much needed given the increased professionalism of the women’s game. Such data would be extremely useful and valuable to the coaches and the support staff that drive the sports science and medical provision at domestic and international levels of the women’s game. Thus, this piece will present some of the existing match demands work that has been published on the female player with special reference to the game’s rapid evolution. As research and development frameworks have been key drivers in other areas of football, this piece also shines a light on an integrative research structure that aligns the match demands area with other key facets of the female game that are highly related and could aid future innovations (e.g. the menstrual cycle and injury).

Previous Research on Women’s Match Demands

Given the scarcity of information on the women’s game, an essential starting point would be to comprehensively evaluate the demands of the women’s game as most research questions will be informed by this. For instance, a granular overview of the physical demands of the elite women’s game will allow teams to create a game model that actually aligns with the activities players undertake during matches (Scott et al., 2018). Based on a literature search, it seems that Davis and Brewer (1993) provided some of the pioneering baseline work on female players’ match activities. This study found that female players covered around 8-9 km in total across the 90 min with each sprint bout covering approximately 15 m. More detailed time-motion analyses have been conducted since this early attempt and they provide more insight into the match demands of elite female players (Andersson et al., 2010; Bradley et al., 2014b; Datson et al., 2017; Mohr et al., 2008; Park et al., 2019). Total distance

covered provides a very basic and indirect indicator of overall game exertion and this varies substantially across studies based on the population examined and particularly the technology used to track players (Bradley and Vescovi, 2015). This makes comparisons across studies difficult and this is further compounded by the relatively low sample sizes of the earlier studies. Research has found that elite female players cover 9.5-10.3 km a game (Bangsbo et al., 2006; Datson et al., 2017; Krustrup et al., 2005; Mohr et al., 2008). No exact measure of physical performance in elite female football exists, but the distance covered at high intensity seems to be a useful indicator given it is related to training status (Bradley et al., 2014a; Krustrup et al., 2005). This is also a distinguishing variable between competitive standards of elite female players (Andersson et al., 2008, 2010; Mohr et al., 2008). For instance, there is a definite trend between competitive level and the distance covered at high intensity. Female players at the highest competitive standard cover 1.5-1.7 km of intense running during a game and this is about 15-30% higher than the players at a lower standard (Mohr et al., 2008; Andersson et al., 2010). This elevated intense running distance is due to more frequent efforts as opposed to longer efforts. Although it specifies that high-intensity running is an important characteristic as it seems more frequent at the top end of the game, it is imperative to understand the complexity surrounding such a measure. The above studies were conducted well before the rapid evolution of the women’s game across Europe and North America. Thus, one could assume that the physical capacity of the female player had an even greater importance when this research was conducted as some players had dual time commitments (e.g. football and a fulltime occupation). This may have meant only the players with funding structures in place could fully dedicate themselves to full-time football. As professionalism has progressed, it could be that the physical capacities of players across the upper levels of the game are more consistent now. Thus, one might assume that the technical and tactical aspects are now the main differentiators between competitive standards. It is always important to mention that ‘more distance is not necessarily better’ when it comes to the match demands and that merging the physical and tactical analyses is needed to gain a global understanding of the women’s game (Bradley, 2020).

In addition to competitive standards, playing position and specifically the tactical role a player undertakes has been found to be a strong modulating factor in relation to the technical and physical performances of elite male players (Bradley et al., 2009; Di Salvo et al., 2009). Although less is known regarding the positional variation in elite women’s football, it would be safe to assume that such a relationship exists. A large number of studies have examined the demands of various positions in generic roles such as defender, midfielder and attacker as opposed to more specialised positions (Andersson et al., 2010; Krustrup et al., 2005; Mohr et al., 2008). However, some studies (Bradley et al., 2014b; Datson et al., 2017) have quantified the demands of various bespoke positions during UEFA Champions League and International matches. Datson et al. (2017) found that during International games, central and wide midfielders covered the greatest intense running distance compared to central defenders, while full-backs and forwards demonstrated comparable distances. This concurs with positional trends found in the FIFA Women’s World Cup (Figure 1). While Bradley et al. (2014b) found that during UEFA Champions League matches, central and wide midfielders in addition to forwards covered more intense running distance than central defenders. Despite these studies using semi-automated optical tracking systems to measure demands, they used slightly different systems, speed thresholds and dwell times and some of these will influence the absolute values produced (Varley et al., 2017). It is not surprising that midfield positions cover the most distance in games given that in ball possession they assist and contribute to offensive elements of play (running with the ball, support play, moving to receive/ exploit space, breaking into the box) but when there is a turnover in ball possession they are just as equally engaged in defensive play (recovery running, closing down/pressing, intercepting and covering). Central defenders typically conduct intense efforts out of possession. However, when their team attacks, their work rate can drop off completely. Future research into women’s football needs to quantify not only the distance covered by players but the tactical purpose behind the effort (Bradley, 2020). In fact, there is limited research on the technical and tactical demands of the women’s game. Some studies are purely reductionist in nature with a limited dimensional scope and tend to study physical attributes at the expense of technical and tactical components. Given that football is a skill-based sport with a physical component in which all elements are influencing each other, it is hard to imagine how these papers can impact the game with no additional context.

Gender Comparison

As mentioned above, there is scant research on elite women’s football performance but even less literature detailing the gender match performance differential. Some of the earlier studies reported that intense running in elite female matches was 30% lower than their male counterparts of a similar competitive standard (Krustrup et al., 2005; Mohr et al., 2008). Some authors suggest that the demands during contemporary elite female football matches have increased (Mohr et al., 2008), but there is limited data available on female players competing at the very highest competitive standard (e.g. UEFA competitions). To accommodate for this, Bradley et al. (2014b) quantified the match performance profiles of

Figure 1 - Positional variation for high-speed running distance (19-23 km/h) for International female players. CD = central defender, FB = full back, CM= central midfielder, WM = wide midfielder, FW = forward. Manually redrawn and coloured from the original source of Bradley & Scott (2020).

elite female and male players to verify possible gender differences during UEFA Champions League matches. Researchers have generally made inferences regarding gender differences from the relatively small number of studies conducted on elite female players (Bradley et al., 2014b; Krustrup et al., 2005, 2010; Mohr et al., 2008; Vescovi, 2012a). Previous studies have either used small sample sizes, lower competitive standards or could be considered outdated given the recent advances in the physical preparation of elite female players. Interestingly, Bradley et al. (2014b) found that UEFA Champions League male players only covered ~5% more total distance compared to female players, but intense running was 30% higher in male players (Figure 2).

Peak Periods of Match Play

The game of football could be described as a submaximal sport given the proportion of low to high-intensity activity, but this disguises the true demands of the game during intense periods. The so-called ‘worse case’ scenarios are well documented in the men’s game (Mohr et al., 2003) but limited data are available for the women’s game and even less on the gender differences. Bradley et al. (2014b) found that the peak 5 min periods for men were higher than female players and illustrates that this trend is genderspecific (Figure 3). This information could potentially be used in a training setting to mimic intense periods of match play. Players could be overloaded even more than that found during intense match play to create a stimulus. Over time this could potentially produce an adaptation that enables players to cope with these intense periods in matches while maintaining their technical and tactical proficiency. Although this could be wishful thinking as no context is actually provided alongside these numbers and thus it is difficult to translate. Bradley et al. (2019) recently mentioned how context can be added to the numbers to create a much-needed narrative to enable the data to be used for training drill design.

Establishing Female-Specific Speed Thresholds

An issue that continues to create debate in this area, is the correct choice of speed thresholds that are appropriate and bespoke enough for the football population in question. Bradley et al. (2014b) reported that there is disproportionately less high speed running and sprinting distance covered during women’s than men’s UEFA Champions League matches when using the same absolute speed thresholds (e.g. 18 to 25 km/h and >25 km/h, respectively). Match data showed that female players covered 718 m (~7% total distance) and 59 m (~1%), whereas male players covered 986 m (~9%) and 200 m (~2%) within those respective thresholds. Thus, is it a fair comparison for males and females as the same thresholds are generically used for both genders? Well to establish this, one needs to examine why there is a gender difference in performance metrics. These differences are likely to be related to a multitude of factors such as gender differences in locomotive ability and physical capacity (Bradley and Vescovi, 2015). Peak speed is ~10% lower over short distances (e.g. 10–30 m) and intermittent endurance capacity using tests like the Yo-Yo tests are 15-30% lower in female than male players (Bradley et al., 2011; 2014a; Vescovi, 2012; Ingebrigtsen et al., 2014; Haugen et al., 2012, 2013). Due to the magnitude of the gender disparity for various performance measures, it is generally accepted by the football community that gender-specific thresholds should be established (Bradley and Vescovi,

Figure 2 - The total distance (upper panel) and intense running distances of UEFA Champions League male and female players (lower panel). Manually redrawn and coloured from the original source of Bradley et al. (2014b). Figure 3- Peak running demands or so-called ‘worst case’ scenarios for UEFA Champions League male and female players. Manually redrawn and coloured from the original source of Bradley et al. (2014b).

2015; Park et al., 2019). Establishing generic thresholds for the women’s game poses some serious challenges. Pertinent questions include: (1) where does one start, (2) what tests/techniques do you use to create such thresholds and (3) how do you factor in gender and maturation status to provide the most appropriate threshold?

Recently, Park et al. (2019) aimed to use advanced statistical techniques to objectively develop generic speed thresholds for elite female players. Longitudinal data were collected from international female players and examined using k-means, a Gaussian mixture model and a spectral clustering technique to establish various thresholds. The most appropriate upper two categories of high speed running, and sprinting were classified as >19 km/h and >23 km/h, respectively. These thresholds received an extensive critique by Vescovi (2019) as he stated that the study did not provide sufficient evidence that the new thresholds were an improvement on previous recommendations based on physiological tests (Bradley and Vescovi 2015). Another criticism is the very low distance covered sprinting using the >23 km/h threshold compared to previous research that clocked 3-4 times the values reported in the Park et al. (2019) study (Vescovi 2012a, 2016; Bradley et al. 2014b; Datson et al. 2017). Although FIFA adopted these new thresholds for the Women’s World Cup in 2019 and it must be noted that the sprinting data (~170 m) compares well with previous research. The variations in the different speed thresholds can be observed in Table 1 and the reader must be reminded that no standardised thresholds have been established and this limits our ability to compare between studies.

Evolution of the Women’s Game

Interest in the match performance characteristics of men’s football has grown rapidly over the last decade as it enables sports scientists to identify the current demands placed on players in competition and apply data to training and testing protocols (Ade et al., 2016; Bradley et al., 2019). Although less progress had been made in women’s football research, more has been published in the last 5 years than at any other time (Kryger et al., 2021). Although more research is still warranted regarding the match demands of female players to gain a deeper understanding of the unique characteristics inherent within this population. Some research has been published on elite female players but there is still a scarcity of information on the subject compared to the men’s game (Bradley et al., 2014; Datson et al., 2019; Kryger et al., 2021).

A report on the physical demands of the Canada 2015 Women’s World Cup demonstrated that the total and highintensity match distances were very similar to that of the 2011 tournament in Germany (FIFA, 2016). This indicates that the demands have stayed relatively consistent at the international level (Figure 4). However, between the Canada 2015 and the France 2019 Women’s World Cups, there was an upsurge not only in the interest and popularity of the game but also its physicality (Bradley and Scott, 2020). There was also a concomitant elevation in professionalism and the creation of major infrastructure regarding elite leagues around the world. This in turn resulted in more revenue generation and more players training and playing as full-time footballers.

When FIFA published the most recent physical report (Bradley and Scott, 2020), the first surprising outcome was the sheer magnitude of the change in demands from the 2015 Women’s World Cup in Canada compared to the 2019 tournament in France. Especially given there was very little change in the demands between the 2011 and 2015 competitions. This report demonstrated that intense running (>19 km/h) had increased across various playing positions by ~20% from Canada 2015 to France 2019, and is clear confirmation of the game’s evolution. To put this into perspective, previous research on elite male players found a similar increase in the demands observed in the English Premier League across a 7-year period (Barnes et al., 2014). While this trend for the women’s game was over just a 4-year period and could indicate a more rapid evolution than that observed in the men’s game on a relative yearby-year basis (Figure 5).

A common question posed by various stakeholders is: ‘why’ has there been such a change? A major limitation is that most match demands studies are descriptive in nature and will highlight the trends but not necessarily the mechanistic information regarding the ‘why’. However, longitudinal fitness testing data could provide some insights. For instance, Haugen et al. (2014) found that the aerobic capacity of elite female players did not change from an absolute perspective but declined slightly when expressed relative to body mass from 1989 to 2007. This latter trend was the result of a higher body mass in the 2002-2007 period compared to the 1989-1994 and 1995-2001 periods. Although body composition was not

Table 1 - Breakdown of various papers on women’s football speed thresholds and the resultant distance covered in various categories. Modified from Bradley and Vescovi (2015).

Figure 4 - Match running performances of International players in the FIFA Women’s World Cups in Germany 2011 and Canada 2015 across various speed thresholds. Manually redrawn and coloured from the original source of FIFA (2016).

assessed, this ~3 kg increase may have been due to an increase in fat-free mass and thus could translate into an elevated anaerobic performance. Interestingly, Haugen et al. (2012) found that elite female players were 2% faster during a 20 m sprinting test in the 20062010 period than players from the 1995-1999 period. This trend is remarkably similar for the evolution of anaerobic match performance and physical testing indices for both elite male and female players and potentially indicates a greater anaerobic contribution to match play as a result of improved sprinting performances. Although, the reader should be aware that to truly prove this, the match performance and physical fitness indices would need to be from the same sample of players and the above trends are from different competitive standards, periods of time and countries.

Integrative Framework for Future Research on the Women’s Game

As these demands have increased particularly at the higher intensities, it emphasises that there should be greater importance placed on training methods to prepare players for the rigours of the modern game. This will help the coach to prepare conditioning drills to enable players to be fully prepared in relation to performance but more so in relation to mitigating the risk of injury. This latter point is particularly important given that injuries are by far the greatest problem encountered in football in terms of their impact on players. This is especially relevant for the women’s game given the potentially greater occurrence of serious long-term injuries (e.g. knee ligament injuries) compared to male players. The reader should also be aware that ‘more is not always better’ (e.g. more intense distance). However, these elevations in metrics coincide with a more entertaining and skill-based game. Thus, these evolutions seem to be benefiting the game from a fan’s perspective, but more injuries and elevated demands could impact the physical and mental strain placed on modern players. Another important avenue for future research is a continued strive to understand the true impact of these elevated demands on players’ performance, injury risk, and general well-being. One area of well-being that is under-researched significantly in both women’s football and sport, in general, is the menstrual cycle. Two recent papers shed some light on the influence of the menstrual cycle phase on physical fitness indices and match running performances of elite female players (Julian et al., 2017, 2020) but clearly more work is needed. Additional research should be conducted on the impact of the menstrual cycle phases on not just physical performances but also technical and tactical indices to gain a more complete understanding of its influence. Moreover, subjective logs and specific interventions to manage various symptoms during seasonal phases would also provide more insights into wellness markers and practical solutions to reduce any negative impacts on performance. But a ‘bigger picture’ perspective is needed as we should ensure all of the research above is not reductionist in nature (e.g. conducted in isolation). A more joined-up approach to research is needed that links all aspects to a global research framework on football (e.g. the demands are linked to performance, injury, and wellbeing as everything is connected!). This can then feedback to stakeholders to make the relevant changes to ultimately aid coach and player development. Football Governing Bodies (e.g. FIFA and UEFA) and Football Associations and other organisations could be an important conduit for this type of research in future. Please see Figure 6 for an integrative research framework that aligns key themes to provide a more holistic understanding of major elements of the game. Despite the growth in the quantity and quality of women’s football studies, this should not be seen as the end but only the beginning! More investment is needed to ensure the women’s game doesn’t just reach the required standard but actually sets the standard! High-quality research will be an important driver of this in the future.

Conclusions

Although the majority of match play is low intensity, it is the high-intensity activity that is both vital for gameplay and is the most taxing physically. The physical components of match play are evolving rapidly in the modern women’s game. As such a greater emphasis must be placed on the physical, technical and tactical preparation of elite female players. Research frameworks have been key drivers in other areas of football, and an integrative research structure that aligns the match demands area with other key facets of the female game could aid future innovations (e.g. menstrual cycle phase and injury).

Dr Paul Bradley (paulbradley94@yahoo.co.uk) Football Science Consultant and Associate Professor (Reader) at LJMU

Figure 5 - Intense running of international players in FIFA Women’s World Cup matches in Canada 2015 and France 2019 and in the men’s English Premier League from 200607 to the 2012-13 season. Manually redrawn and coloured from the original source of Barnes et al. (2014) as well as Bradley and Scott (2020). Please note: the high-intensity threshold for male players was >19.8 km/h and >19.0 for female players.

Figure 6 - An integrative R&D framework that advocates a more joined-up approach. Studies can be broken down individually but also have selected parts that overlap so interactions between studies can be examined to unveil complexities.

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