What are the significant turning demands of match play of an English Premier League soccer team?

Figures & data

Table 1. Descriptive and positional group comparison for turning metrics.

Turn metric frequency	Position	Full backs (FB)	Centre back (CB)	Wide midfield (WM)	Central midfield (CM)	Central forward (CF)	Kruskal-Wallis p	ε²	Pairwise comparisons
Total turns	Mean	19.9	18.6	27.1	38.4	18.1	<0.001**	0.475	CM>FB,CB,WM,CF (p < 0.001, d = 1.36-2.74) (L-VL)WM> FB,CB,CF (p < 0.001, d = 0.82-1.15) (M)
	SD	8.6	6.4	8.6	8.0	6.9
	Min	8.0	10.0	10.0	24.0	7.0
	Max	55.0	38.0	45.0	55.0	38.0
	CV%	38.1	34.5	31.2	20.7	38.6
Turns <3.0 m/s	Mean	8.1	9.8	9.9	15.4	7.2	<0.001**	0.310	CM>FB,CB,WM,CF (p < 0.001, d = 1.20-1.97) (L)WM>CF (p = 0.010, d = 0.79) (M)
	SD	3.2	4.1	3.8	5.1	2.9
	Min	2.0	4.0	1.0	4.0	2.0
	Max	19.0	22.0	20.0	27.0	14.0
	CV%	39.2	42.1	38.3	33.4	39.3
Turns 3.0-5.5 m/s	Mean	10.2	8.0	14.9	21.0	10.3	<0.001**	0.461	CM>FB,CB,WM,CF (p < 0.001, d = 1.21-3.04) (L-VL)WM>FB,CB,CF (p ≤ 0.004, d = 0.77-1.42) (M-L)
	SD	6.5	4.0	5.6	4.6	5.6
	Min	2.0	2.0	5.0	13.0	3.0
	Max	35.0	19.0	30.0	29.0	32.0
	CV%	57.5	50.3	36.3	21.9	54.6
Turns 5.5-7.0 m/s	Mean	1.5	0.7	2.0	1.7	0.8	<0.001**	0.166	WM>CB,CF (p < 0.001, d = 0.93-1.09) (M)CM>CB,CF (p ≤ 0.016, d = 0.71-0.84) (M)FB>CB,CF (p ≤ 0.031, d = 0.63-0.77) (M)
	SD	1.3	0.8	1.4	1.4	1.1
	Min	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
	Max	4.0	3.0	6.0	5.0	4.0
	CV%	82.4	102.9	72.8	83.0	145.4
Turns >7.0 m/s	Mean	0.2	0.0	0.3	0.3	0.1	0.034*	0.058	CB<WM,CM (p ≤ 0.046, d = 0.61-0.71) (M)
	SD	0.4	0.0	0.7	0.5	0.3
	Min	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
	Max	1.0	0.0	3.0	2.0	1.0
	CV%	230.1	-	254.4	204.2	357.7
Low Turns (20-59°)	Mean	2.1	2.1	2.1	4.0	1.5	<0.001**	0.213	CM>FB,CB,WM,CF (p < 0.001, d = 1.04-1.45) (M-L)
	SD	1.7	1.7	1.4	1.9	1.5
	Min	0.0	0.0	0.0	1.0	0.0
	Max	7.0	6.0	6.0	10.0	8.0
	CV%	79.7	83.1	67.6	45.6	93.0
Medium Turns (60-119°)	Mean	3.8	3.7	6.4	9.8	3.9	<0.001**	0.355	CM>FB,CB,WM,CF (p <0.001, d = 0.96-1.91) (M-L)WM>FB,CB,CF (p ≤ 0.011, d = 0.84-0.94) (M)
	SD	2.5	2.5	3.3	3.7	2.7
	Min	1.0	0.0	0.0	2.0	0.0
	Max	11.0	9.0	13.0	19.0	10.0
	CV%	67.6	69.3	51.4	36.5	68.8
High Turns (120-180°)	Mean	14.0	12.6	18.3	24.3	12.7	<0.001**	0.384	CM>FB,CB,WM,CF (p <0.001, d = 0.98-2.15) (M-VL)WM>FB,CB,CF (p ≤ 0.021, d = 0.66-1.00) (M)
	SD	6.6	4.9	6.4	5.9	5.3
	Min	4.0	7.0	6.0	15.0	3.0
	Max	40.0	29.0	30.0	38.0	30.0
	CV%	42.2	39.8	34.1	24.7	41.7

Key: SD: Standard deviation; CV%: Coefficient of variation; Min: Minimum; Max: Maximum; M: Moderate effect size; L: Large effect size; VL: Very large effect size. Italic denotes non-parametric. **: p < 0.001;*: p < 0.05

Figure 1. Box and whisker plots for Total turns (panel a), Low turns (20–59°) (panel b), Medium turns (60–119°) (panel c) and High turns (120–180°) (panel d). FB: Full backs; CB: Centre back; WM: Wide midfield; CM: Central midfield.

Figure 2. Box and whisker plots for turns with entry speeds <3.0 m/s (panel a), turns 3.0–5.5 m/s (panel b), turns 5.5–7.0 m/s (panel c) and turns >7.0 m/s (panel d). FB: Full backs; CB: Centre back; WM: Wide midfield; CM: Central midfield.

Table 2. Proportion of turns by entry speed and angle across playing position groups.

	Position	Full backs (FB)	Centre back (CB)	Wide midfield (WM)	Central midfield (CM)	Central forward (CF)
Entry speed	Proportion turns <3.0 m/s (%)	40.4	52.8	36.6	40.1	40.0
	Proportion turns 3.0–5.5 m/s (%)	51.3	43.3	55.0	54.8	56.8
	Proportion turns 5.5–7.0 m/s (%)	7.7	3.9	7.3	4.4	4.3
	Proportion turns >7.0 m/s (%)	0.8	0.0	1.1	0.7	0.5
Angle of turn	Proportion low turns (%) (20–59°)	10.7	11.2	7.8	10.5	8.5
	Proportion medium turns (%) (60–119°)	18.8	19.9	23.8	25.6	21.7
	Proportion high turns (%) (120–180°)	70.1	68.8	67.6	63.3	70.3