Do Better Ranked Teams Run More in Soccer?

The aim of this study was to determine whether there are differences in running performance (RP) among strong, moderate, and weak teams, and to correlate running variables (RV) with the points the teams achieved in the final standings. The sample consisted of 185 matches (370 observations) of the Turkish League during the 2021/2022 season. K-means cluster analysis was applied to classify the teams into three groups. Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney tests were employed to search for differences in RV among the three groups. Spearman’s correlation was performed to calculate the relationship between the points collected by each team in the championship and performance in the nine RV. The results showed statistically significant differences among the three groups in the variables total distance, walking distance, jogging distance, running distance, high- speed distance, and number of high-speed runs. However, the correlation of these variables with the points of the teams in the final standings was small. These findings show that while RP metrics have some influence, other factors play a more decisive role in achieving higher overall team success.