Using tracking data from the full 2025/26 LALIGA EA SPORTS season, we compared 225 players with themselves as starters and substitutes. Players produced more high-speed running per minute from the bench, and intensity increased further as playing exposure shortened. The pattern is consistent with pacing:...
What does “running more” actually mean in football? Across five LALIGA EA SPORTS seasons, the answer changes by team, season and metric. Total distance and high-intensity running often tell different stories, while league averages hide major differences. A match-by-match approach reveals why outrunning the opponent...
Five extra minutes of effective playing time can add almost 3 km of collective running. But that physical cost is far from identical across LALIGA teams—and high-speed running tells a very different story. This analysis explores how Effective Playing Time shapes match demands, why possession...
Around 82% of movement time and 72% of total distance in elite football occur below 14 km/h. The difference between these two figures reveals not only how players move, but also where much of football performance is actually produced. High-speed running and sprinting dominate many discussions...
Football performance is usually normalised by time. Metres per minute. High-intensity distance per minute. Accelerations per minute. Technical actions per 90. This approach is useful, consolidated and easy to interpret. But it places one variable at the centre of the analysis: time on the pitch. What happens when...
Return to competition protocolDescarga A player can be medically cleared, train with the squad, be available for selection and even play minutes… while still not being back to his real competitive level. That is the starting point of this protocol. The key question is not simply: Can he play? The...