Finding a Superior Defending Approach in One-Versus-One Actions in Male Elite Soccer

Background: The upcoming of tracking data has made it possible to analyze tactical team patterns and decision making in soccer. A proven tactical principle to increase the chance of scoring is by outplaying opponents (Rein et al., 2017), for instance during a one versus one action. Consequently, it is important for defenders to know if a specific approach might decrease the chance of being outplayed. For instance, the defender could choose a passive approach by moving in a similar direction of the defender, or a more proactive one by moving in the opposite direction, thus towards to attacker.
Aim: Therefore, the aim of the current study is to test if there is a behavior for defenders to decrease the chance of getting outplayed in a one versus one action by an attacker in male elite soccer.
Methods: Using a rule-based preselector, 372 one versus one actions were manually obtained from 25 Eredivisie matches and labeled either successful (n=215) or unsuccessful (n=157) using video data of the match. Two defending behaviors were analyzed: (1) passive defenders that moved in the same directions as the opponent during the action and (2) proactive defenders that moved in the opposite direction as the opponent during the action. On top of that, the voronoi area of the attacker at the start of the action, as a measure of space, and the x- and y-position of where on the pitch the duel took place were collected from the tracking data. A logistic regression was used to investigate successfulness of the action using the defending strategy, controlling for pitch location and space.
Results: The type of defending and the y-position of the duel statistically contributed to the model (p<0.05). The position in the x-direction of the pitch and the area the attacker had at the start of the one versus one action did not significantly contribute to the model. On top of that, the model also significantly predicted the successfulness of the actions (p<0.05).
Conclusion: The superior approach for defenders in one versus one actions is to move toward the opponent during the duel. On top of that, the closer the action is to the sideline, the lower the likelihood that the one versus one action is successful.