
Level of Evidence IV Case series.Įl objetivo de esta investigación fue verificar qué comportamientos tácticos pueden predecir la eficiencia defensiva entre los jugadores de fútbol de élite. Teams that recovered the ball far from their own goals and coordinated their last defensive line to leave attackers in an offside position had success in getting the ball back.

Moreover, every foul committed increased the chances of failure in the defensive phase (OR = 5.39 P < 0.01).

On the other hand, removing defensive depth resulted in a decrease of 71% in the chances of completing a goal (OR = 0.29 P < 0.01). Recovering the ball in the defensive zone of the field had a 19-times better chance of goal completion compared to recovering the ball in the middle offensive zone (OR = 19.39 P < 0.01). Multinomial logistic regression was applied to predict the chances of success and failure of collective defensive actions (P < 0.05). The tactical sequences were analyzed using Match Vision Studio Premium software. An ad-hoc instrument was built with the variables: “ball recovery zone”, “defensive pressure”, “removing depth”, “defensive time spent”, “number of occupied corridors”, “number of fouls committed”, and “number of times fouled”.

The sample was composed of 533 defensive sequences from national teams that were semifinalists in the FIFA World Cup 2014. The purpose of this research was to verify which tactical behaviors can predict defensive efficiency among elite football players.
