The selection advantages associated with advanced biological maturation vary according to playing position in national-level youth soccer by Liam Sweeney, Sean Cummin, Áine MacNamara, Dan Horan

“…Players were categorised as goalkeeper (GK), central defender (CD), full-back (FB), centre defensive midfielder (CDM), centre midfielder (CM), centre attacking midfielder (CAM), wide midfielder (WM) or centre forward (CF). A series of one-sampled means t-tests were used to examine the degree to which biological maturation selection biases existed across playing positions. …”
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Effect of the role, playing position and the body characteristics on physical performance in female soccer players by Omar Sánchez-Abselam, Francisco Tomás González-Fernández, Antonio Figueiredo, Alfonso Castillo-Rodríguez, Wanesa Onetti-Onetti

“…Offensive role, forwards and wide-midfielder female players performed the highest physical demands in the competition. …”
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Effective playing time affects physical match performance in soccer: An analysis according to playing position by Stefan Altmann, Leon Forcher, Alexander Woll, Sascha Härtel

“…Still, physical performance of wide midfielders and forwards partly deviated from the pattern observed in the other positions. …”
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Match Load Physical Demands in U-19 Professional Soccer Players Assessed by a Wearable Inertial Sensor by Guglielmo Pillitteri, Valerio Giustino, Marco Petrucci, Alessio Rossi, Ignazio Leale, Marianna Bellafiore, Ewan Thomas, Angelo Iovane, Antonio Palma, Giuseppe Battaglia

“…The aim of this study was to investigate the EL indicators (i.e., cinematic, mechanical, and metabolic) differences between playing positions (i.e., central backs, external strikers, fullbacks, midfielders, and wide midfielder) during the first half time of four official matches (OMs). …”
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External load profile during different sport-specific activities in semi-professional soccer players by Guglielmo Pillitteri, Valerio Giustino, Marco Petrucci, Alessio Rossi, Marianna Bellafiore, Ewan Thomas, Angelo Iovane, Antonino Bianco, Antonio Palma, Giuseppe Battaglia

“…Abstract Background Global Positioning System (GPS) devices are widely used in soccer for monitoring external load (EL) indicators with the aim of maximizing sports performance.The aim of this study was to investigate the EL indicators differences in players of different playing positions (i.e., central backs, external strikers, fullbacks, midfielders, strikers, wide midfielder) between and within different sport-specific tasks and official matches. …”
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Position specific physical demands in different phases of competitive matches in national level women’s football by Juho K. Mäkiniemi, Eero H. J. Savolainen, Taija Finni, Johanna Ihalainen

“…This study demonstrated that women’s national level football matches place a range of physical demands on players, which in general were highest for wide midfielders, and lowest for central defenders. Wide midfielders and forwards performed significantly more ‘very high-speed’ running, sprinting, accelerations, and decelerations than other outfield positions (p < 0.05). …”
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Quantification of Pre-Season and In-Season Training Intensity across an Entire Competitive Season of Asian Professional Soccer Players by Hadi Nobari, Akhilesh Kumar Ramachandran, João Paulo Brito, Rafael Oliveira

“…Wide defenders and wide midfielders showed higher distances covered with high-intensity running.…”
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Exploring the impact of professional soccer substitute players on physical and technical performance by Pengyu Pan, Fangbin Li, Bo Han, Bo Yuan, Tianbiao Liu

“…SP in offensive positions (attackers, wide midfielders) showed significantly higher (p < 0.05) passing and organizing performance such as passes, ball control, short passes, and long passes than RP or EMP. …”
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The Physical Demands of Match-Play in Academy and Senior Soccer Players from the Scottish Premiership by Ryland Morgans, Eduard Bezuglov, Patrick Orme, Kyler Burns, Dave Rhodes, John Babraj, Rocco Di Michele, Rafael Franco Soares Oliveira

“…Across both teams, Centre Backs compared to Wing Backs, showed a 295 m (<i>p</i> < 0.01) lower high-intensity distance, and performed on average 36 fewer very-high intensity decelerations (<i>p</i> = 0.03). Comparing to Wide Midfielders, Centre Backs showed lower total (1297 m, <i>p</i> = 0.01), high-intensity (350 m, <i>p</i> = 0.01), and sprint (167 m, <i>p</i> < 0.01) distances. …”
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Comparison of training and match load between metabolic and running speed metrics of professional Spanish soccer players by playing position by Berni Guerrero-Calderón, José Alfonso Morcillo, Marcos Chena, Alfonso Castillo-Rodríguez

“…The results showed significant differences between positions on match day; central midfielders covered higher total distance and low- and medium-speed running distance (moderate to large effect size) than central defenders, external defenders and forwards; forwards performed more metabolic power events than central defenders, central midfielders and wide midfielders; and central defenders showed the lowest very-high-speed running. …”
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Match running performance characterizing the most elite soccer match-play by Toni Modric, Sime Versic, Ryland Morgans, Damir Sekulic

“…No differences in overall MRP between fullbacks, central midfielders, wide midfielders and forwards from BFLTs and their peers from N-BFLTs were found, while only central defenders from BFLTs covered more high-intensity running than central defenders from BFLTs (moderate effects size). …”
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Relative Individual Sprint in Most Demanding Passages of Play in Spanish Professional Soccer Matches by Juan Ángel Piñero, Marcos Chena, Juan Carlos Zapardiel, Alberto Roso-Moliner, Elena Mainer-Pardos, Miguel Lampre, Demetrio Lozano

“…MDP were calculated from 80% of the maximum sprint speed of each player. (3) Results: Wide midfielders covered the greatest distance at >80% of the maximum speed (2.4 ± 1.63 seg) and the longest duration (21.91 ± 13.35 m) in their MDP. …”
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How Do Football Playing Positions Differ in Body Composition? A First Insight into White Italian Serie A and Serie B Players by Tindaro Bongiovanni, Alessio Rossi, Federico Genovesi, Giulia Martera, Giuseppe Puleo, Carmine Orlandi, Mirco Spedicato, F. Marcello Iaia, Riccardo Del Vescovo, Stefano Gallo, Roberto Cannataro, Patrizio Ripari, Matteo Levi Micheli, Stefania Cataldi, Athos Trecroci

“…Five hundred and six Serie A and B professional soccer players were included in the study and analyzed according to their playing positions: goalkeepers (GKs), central backs (CBs), fullbacks (FBs), central midfielders (MIDs), wide midfielders (WMs), attacking midfielders (AMs), second strikers (SSs), external strikers (ESs), and central forwards (CFs), as well as their field zones (central and external) and tactical lines (defensive, middle, and offensive). …”
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Contextualised high-intensity running profiles of elite football players with reference to general and specialised tactical roles by Wonwoo Ju, Dominic Doran, Richard Hawkins, Mark Evans, Andy Laws, Paul Bradley

“…Data were analysed across 5 general (Central Defensive Players = CDP, Wide Defensive Players = WDP, Central Midfield Players = CMP, Wide Offensive Players = WOP, Central Offensive Players = COP) and 11 specialised positions (Centre Backs = CB, Full-Backs = FB, Wing-Backs = WB, Box-to-Box Midfielders = B2BM, Central Defensive Midfielders = CDM, Central Attacking Midfielders = CAM, Wide Midfielders = WM, Wide Forwards = WF, Centre Forwards = CF). …”
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Physical Fitness Characteristics of High-level Youth Football Players: Influence of Playing Position by David Bujnovky, Tomas Maly, Kevin R. Ford, Dai Sugimoto, Egon Kunzmann, Mikulas Hank, Frantisek Zahalka

“…Elite youth football players (<i>n</i> = 123, age = 15.7 &#177; 0.5 years) who played in six different positions, as goalkeepers (GK), full backs (FB), central defenders (CD), wide midfielders (WM), central midfielders (CM), and attackers (AT), were assessed. …”
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Effect of playing position and microcycle days on the acceleration speed profile of elite football players by Antonio Alonso-Callejo, Jorge García-Unanue, Andrés Perez-Guerra, David Gomez, Javier Sánchez-Sánchez, Leonor Gallardo, Jose María Oliva-Lozano, Jose Luis Felipe

“…They were classified into five playing positions: central defenders (CD), full backs (FB), midfielders (MF), wide midfielders (WMF) and forwards (FW). Microcycle days were categorised according to the days until matchday (MD, MD-1, MD-2, MD-3, MD-4 and MD-5). …”
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Within- and between-mesocycle variations of well-being measures in top elite male soccer players: a longitudinal study by Rafael Oliveira, Halil İbrahim Ceylan, João Paulo Brito, Alexandre Martins, Matilde Nalha, Bruno Mendes, Filipe Manuel Clemente

“…Additionally, participants were divided by playing positions: three wide defenders, four central defenders, three wide midfielders, four central midfielders, and three strikers. …”
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‘Setting the Benchmark’ Part 1: The Contextualised Physical Demands of Positional Roles in the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 by Paul S. Bradley

“…The distances covered at higher intensities (≥20 and ≥25 km·h -1 ) were 16–92% and 36–138% higher for wide midfielders and wide forwards compared to central defenders, defensive and central midfielders as well as centre forwards ( P <0.01; ES: 0.7–2.2 and ES: 0.6–1.4). …”
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High metabolic load distance in professional soccer according to competitive level and playing positions by Tomás García-Calvo, José Carlos Ponce-Bordón, Eduard Pons, Roberto López del Campo, Ricardo Resta, Javier Raya-González

“…Players were classified according to their playing position as follows: Central Backs (CB), Full Backs (FB), Center Midfields (CM), Wide Midfields (WM), and Forwards (FW). Results No differences between competitive levels were found in any variable when all players were analyzed conjointly except for HMLDmin overall and during the second half. …”
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The Influence of Time Winning and Time Losing on Position-Specific Match Physical Demands in the Top One Spanish Soccer League by José C. Ponce-Bordón, Jesús Díaz-García, Miguel A. López-Gajardo, David Lobo-Triviño, Roberto López del Campo, Ricardo Resta, Tomás García-Calvo

“…Results showed that TD and TD > 21 km·h⁻¹ covered by central midfielders (0.01 and 0.005 m/min, respectively), wide midfielders (0.02 and 0.01 m/min, respectively), and forwards (0.03 and 0.02 m/min, respectively) significantly increased while winning (<i>p</i> < 0.05). …”
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