Evolution of tactical behavior of soccer players across their development

The objective of this study was to analyse the tactical behaviour of soccer players in real-game situations across the different stages of development. The study involved 186 soccer players, aged between 8 and 19 years, from 15 teams across 3 Spanish Soccer clubs. We analysed 4409 actions over 30 league matches. The instrument used was an adaptation of the Game Performance Evaluation Tool, which measures decision-making and execution actions for passing, dribbling and shooting skills in different age groups (i.e. U10, U12, U14, U16 and U19). Our results demonstrate that in all groups the percentage of successful skill executions was lower than that of adequate decisions. Further, progression into the U10 and U14 groups interrupted the development of decision-making and skill execution actions. Based on this we propose a change to the regulatory configuration of youth and child categories that allows for a progressive adaptation to the skills and training needs of players. The training of both tactical and technical skills is also considered relevant.