Investigating the evolution of technical and positional demands from the English Premier League between 2014/15 to 2018/19.

The aim of this study is to examine technical and positional demands of teams within the English Premier League between 2014-15 to 2018-19 seasons. The purpose of the study was to see if there were key differences the way teams and positions play from those five years. Previous research has shown that technical and positional demands have significantly changed over time. Collecting the data from OPTA, 31 teams and 1925 players were analysed from the English Premier League between 2014-15 to 2018/19 seasons. Players that were included, played a minimum of 500 minutes in one position. Independent One-Way ANOVA test was utilised to highlight the differences between positions and seasons. The top 6 teams from each season were compared, along with every team and each position within the time frame. The analysis showed that top 6 team’s shots on target have decreased by 12% over 5 seasons and is a significant result F4,24 = 16.798, p=0.000. The number of interceptions by the EPL top 6 teams significantly decreased from 2014-15 to 2018-19 F4,25 = 13.090, P= 0.000. The amount of defensive recoveries from top 6 teams significantly decreased as well F4,25 = 10.278, P=0.000. Comparing all teams, tackle success rate, interceptions and clearances have all significantly decreased over the five seasons. Whereas all attacking indicators did not change significantly. Similarly, the positional demands of each position did not change a significant amount, with only tackle success rate decreasing in every position. One-way Independent ANOVA analysis revealed that defensive performance indictors are on the decrease in the English Premier League. Which suggests that teams are focussing on more possession-based tactics rather than counter attacking. This is proven through that the average percentage of teams in possession is 49% and 60% is the average of top 6 teams. Furthermore, by clearances significantly decreasing, the results suggest that teams want to keep possession and play out of their own third rather than clearing the ball high up the pitch and trying to regain in more advanced areas. Practical implications show that EPL teams are looking to maintain a high level of possession. From using previous literature to compare results, EPL teams are adopting a more ‘European style of play’. This is due to a high percentage of players and coaches from European clubs have migrated to the EPL thus having an impact on the technical performance of teams and players