Position-Specific External Load Between Official Matches and Small-, Medium- and Large-Sided Games in Professional Football

Objectives: Sided games are commonly used to condition players for the demands of official games (OGs). Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate if different sided games match position-specific locomotor and mechanical OG demands of professional football players. Methods: Twenty-one male professional football players from a second team of a professional football club were monitored during the second half of the 2024/25 season. External load was assessed during OGs and sided games. The latter were categorized by area per player (ApP) as small- (SSG, ApP < 100 m2), medium- (MSG, ApP 100–200 m2) and large-sided games (LSG, ApP > 200 m2). External load was analyzed for total distance (TD), high-speed running (HSR), sprint distance (SPD), and the number of accelerations (ACC) and decelerations (DEC). Players were grouped by position: center backs (CBs), full backs (FBs), central midfielders (CMs), wide midfielders (WMs), and strikers (STs). Results: Across all playing positions (CB, FB, CM, WM, ST), SSGs, MSGs and LSGs elicited significantly higher TD than the OG, except for CM, where no significant differences were observed during SSGs and LSGs. All positions displayed similar HSR during LSGs than OG demands, and some positions also during MSGs (CB, CM, FB) and SSGs (CB). SPD was similar across all positions only during LSGs. ACC and DEC were significantly higher for all positions in SSGs and MSGs than OGs and similar in LSGs. Conclusions: Position-specific OG demands were not statistically from different sided-game formats. ACC, DEC and TD in LSGs met OG demands; however, smaller formats (SSGs, MSGs) overload those variables. In contrast, HSR and SPR load in SSGs and MSGs did not meet OG demands for most positions. For that, coaches should use LSGs, knowing that TD may be overloaded, or supplement SSGs/MSGs with running-based drills for more accurate programming.