GPS Devices for Match Analysis in Soccer

The analysis of tactical behaviour in team sports has rapidly increased in the last decade. On the other hand, the cost in terms of the generally used instruments (i.e. video analysis) and time spent on data elaboration makes this analysis possible only at a high level where there is a high budget available and the team's staff is usually numerous. This study aims to provide a methodological approach for the use of GPS devices and an automated process to evaluate some tactical behaviour of the players. Data of latitude and longitude of eight players have been collected during six consecutive soccer matches by using GPS devices. The data have been then elaborated by means of a customed Matlab code in order to calculate the time spent and the distance covered in different zones of the playing field. The data suggested that a five weeks tactical training period appeared to influence the tactical behaviour of players during the match. Comparing three matches at the beginning of the training period and three at the end, the players tended to spend more time and cover more distance in the offensive zone after the training than before. Despite the limited number of subjects on which this methodology has been tested, it seems that it showed a likely powerful use of quite cheap technology. © 2023 IEEE.