Dr. López del Campo, Author at Football Innovation Hub

02 Feb Physical Match Performance of Professional Men’s Football Players from Different Competitive Levels During Direct Competition

Posted at 13:34h in Paper

Do First Division players really run more? Or does everything change when teams from different divisions face each other? Most research compares leagues separately. This study does something different. It analyses 25 Copa del Rey matches across three seasons where Spanish First and Second Division teams competed directly...

01 Feb Influence of competitive level and playing position on the physical and technical demands of professional men’s football

Posted at 13:14h in Paper

Are First Division players physically superior? Or are they simply more technically efficient? This study analysed 1,608 official matches across two full seasons (2021/22 and 2022/23) in the Spanish First and Second Divisions, including 1,050 professional players from 44 teams. The objective was clear. To determine how competitive level...

26 Ene Twelve Performance Biases That Distort Player Evaluation in Elite Football. Part 1: Possession bias

Posted at 19:47h in Research

Football performance departments compare players every day. Radar charts. Rankings. Physical KPIs. These tools influence training decisions, recruitment strategies, and match preparation. But there is a fundamental problem. Context is often ignored. When context is ignored, data can push decisions in the wrong direction. Over the coming...

20 Ene When the Game Demands More, Maximum Speed Declines

Posted at 13:31h in Research

A consistent second-half pattern in professional football There is a widespread assumption in football. As matches progress and results are on the line, players are expected to reach their highest physical levels. More intensity. More effort. More speed. From a tactical and emotional perspective, this assumption is logical.From...

15 Ene Why do teams in numerical superiority reduce their physical intensity instead of exploiting the advantage?

Posted at 13:15h in Research

Introduction: a familiar scenario in elite football A red card changes everything. As a coach or performance staff member, you have seen it countless times. The opponent goes down to ten players. Instinct says: now is the moment. Push higher. Increase tempo. Make the pitch bigger. Break...

13 Ene When You Change Division, You Don’t Need Better Players. You Need Different Profiles.

Posted at 12:07h in Research

Every summer, the same scene repeats itself. A club gets promoted. Or relegated.Meetings multiply. Reports pile up.Someone says: “We need players who can cope with the new level.” The intention is right.The question is wrong. The real challenge is not whether your players are “good enough”.It is whether...

Author: Dr. López del Campo