Aim: The primary aim of this study was to investigate the effect of team size on the technical and psychological characteristics of youth football players during small-sided games whilst also investigating the impact of game format and maturation. Methods: Players from the academies of two Scottish Football Clubs were recruited to compete in bio-banded and mixed maturity SSG. Each week the number of players per team increased: Week 1) 4v4; Week 2) 5v5: and Week 3) 6v6. Whilst the number of players increased, a fixed relative pitch size of 141m2 per player was used. A round-robin style tournament was used, which resulted in six Bio-banded and six Mixed maturity games with three different game formats – Maturity Matched (More vs More, Less vs Less), Maturity Mismatched (More vs Less) and Mixed Maturity. The individual technical actions of participants were collected using a foot-mounted inertial measurement unit, whilst the psychological characteristics of participants were assessed using a psychological scoring chart. Results: Smaller team sizes elicited a greater array of desirable psychological attributes for more mature players, whilst less mature players' psychological traits remained consistent. Results identified that smaller team sizes led to greater individual technical actions for less mature players, particularly during mismatched and mixed maturity SSG. Results also suggest that game format appeared to have a limited effect on the technical exposure and psychological characteristics of more and less mature players. Conclusion: These findings imply that smaller team sizes may be more applicable if practitioners aim to identify or develop the technical and psychological skillsets of more and less mature players.
Ross Mclellan (Tue,) studied this question.