Variability of Technical Actions During Small-Sided Games in Young Soccer Players

The purpose of this study was three-fold: (i) to test the between-sessions variability of 3 vs. 3 and 6 vs. 6 formats in under-11 players, (ii) to assess the within-session variability of 3 vs. 3 and 6 vs. 6 formats, and (iii) to investigate the variations of technical actions between formats. Sixteen soccer players (10.1 ± 0.3 years old) participated in this study. Both formats of play were played twice within an interval of one week to test the between-session variability and the variables of conquered balls (CBs), received balls (RBs), lost balls (LBs), attacking balls/passes (ABs) and shots (Ss) were analyzed using the Performance Assessment in Team Sports instrument in all matches. Moderate variations on the sum of sets during the 3 vs. 3 and 6 vs. 6 formats were observed in all variables. Considering the variations of technical actions made between sets in the 3 vs. 3 format, likely moderate increases were found in set 2 vs. 1 in terms of RB (37.5%, [-2.7;94.2]), and likely small decreases were found in set 3 vs. 2 for the same variable (-18.3%, [-37.8;7.3]). In the 6 vs. 6 format, only possibly small increases were found for set 3 vs. 1 in S (22.5%, [-7.0;61.3]). Generally (sum of sets), the variables standardized per minute revealed almost certain very large decreases in the 6 vs. 6 vs. the 3 vs. 3 format in the variables of CB (-67.9%, [-75.3;-55.9]), LB (-66.0%, [-73.9;-55.7]), RB (-65.6%, [-74.8;- 53.1]) and S (-87.6%, [-93.1;-77.7]). The results of this study suggest that both formats of play are too noisy to be reproducible. The 3 vs. 3 format largely increased the number of individual technical actions.